He did it! He finally did it! With a little over a week to spare in the 2022 MLB regular season, Albert Pujols has hit his historic 700th career home run. Unfortunately, I was unable to see the game live thanks to it being exclusively on Apple TV but I digress. Ultimately, what matters is that he did it. And what a way to get it done too, with a two home run game in what was briefly his home ballpark, Dodger Stadium.
Pujols is only the fourth man to ever cross the 700 home run plateau and Barry Bonds has a figurative asterisk around his having done so for obvious reasons. I will leave it to you to determine if Pujols is the third 700 homer player in your mind or the fourth. The point is that he is the first player born outside of the United States to achieve this. He has gone from lower draft pick to rookie phenom to one of the all-time greats. There is no disputing that anymore. What Pujols has achieved is a standard that may not be met again for a very long time.
The body of work from his rookie season in 2001 up to now is simply impressive. He owns a 101.1 career WAR, a .296 career batting average, 3377 hits, 2208 RBI, a 144 career OPS+ and yes 700 HR. He also owns 11 All-Star selections, 3 MVP awards and 6 Silver Slugger awards. The only word that comes to mind is staggering. He is 9th all-time in hits and 4th all-time in home runs. He is 3rd all-time in RBI and a mere 5 RBI from catching Babe Ruth for 2nd, a feat which he may well achieve in the final week of the season, and of his truly special career. Like many legends of the game, Pujols also boasts an impressive playoff resume. He has 19 HR, 54 RBI and a 1.007 OPS in his playoff career and was the 2004 NLCS MVP. On the defensive side, his exploits include 2 Gold Gloves. This is about the most solid Hall of Fame case of any active player. It is simply unassailable even if you take into account his down seasons after 2011. And do note, if you take those down years into account you must also account for this impressive last hurrah where he has put up his highest OPS since his first season with the Angels in 2012 and his highest SLG since 2011, his final season of his first stint in St. Louis. I guess you can go home again.
Most likely, this is the final season in the legendary career of Albert Pujols. If it is, what a finish, not only because he has hit this milestone, but because of his impressive surge over these last couple of months after a poor start to 2022. It’s almost as if he wanted to leave fans with one last reminder of the Albert Pujols that my generation grew up watching, the man who terrorized pitchers for years and made hitting look almost easy. Whenever he retires, the countdown to his Hall of Fame induction speech begins. He will probably be a unanimous or close to unanimous selection. Any writer who makes a public show of voting against his induction will only make a public fool of himself. When his induction day comes, his plaque will remind us all that you don’t have to be a 1st round draft choice or come from a life of privilege to be a legend. Albert Pujols was neither of those things coming up, but as far as hitting records are concerned, there is little place else for him to look but down. The game is far better off than when he made his debut in April of 2001 and he helped make it that way.
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