Albert Pujols Swings for the Fences in His Final Season

Jeffrey Hayes, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Pujols is now only the fourth player in MLB history to hit 700+ home runs.

In 1999 Albert Pujols was drafted by the St Louis Cardinals, now this 2022 baseball season will be his final season playing professional baseball. Over his career, he’s collected awards such as Rookie of the Year, MVP, World Series Champion, the Golden Glove Award, and the Silver Slugger Award.

Albert Pujols is often regarded as one of the best players to ever play baseball. He has recorded over 3,000 hits and now has another accomplishment under his belt. Pujols is now only the fourth player in MLB history to hit 700+ home runs.

Albert Pujols’ Rookie Card. Credit: Amazon

He started off the 2022 season slowly. In May-June, his batting average was around .180, for reference the average MLB batting average is around .240. However, Pujols bounced back and got hot in July and August, batting over .300. This is when the conversation of joining the 700-home run club began to spark.

He began the campaign with a total of 679 career home runs and slowly crept to the goal of 700 home runs. On Friday, Sept. 23, 2022 history was made. Pujols went into the game with 698 home runs. The St Louis Cardinals were up against the LA Dodgers. In the third inning, Pujols stepped up to the plate and hit homerun number 699 to give the cardinals a 2-0 lead. And in the 4th inning, the most memorable part of the game occurred Pujols hit his 700th home run to put the cardinals up 5-0. The game ended in a blowout, with the Cardinals winning 11-0 in the shutout victory.

The fans were quick to congratulate Pujols on the accomplishment. And the most important thing was will Pujols get the ball back? The fan who caught the ball intended to keep it. This made a lot of sports fans upset. However, Pujols thinks otherwise and said, “Souvenirs are for the fans. I don’t have any problem if they want to keep it.”

Nevertheless, Pujols is lauded as one of the best players to play on the diamond and his name will be forever engraved in baseball history.