Written by David Schoenfield at ESPN.com
Fun factoid about Albert Pujols’ first career home run on April 6, 2001, off Armando Reynoso: He played right field that day.
I love the cycle of baseball. A couple of weeks after that first home run, Pujols homered off John Franco, who began his career in 1984 as a Cincinnati Reds teammate of player-manager Pete Rose, who began his career in 1963. Pujols has homered off 386 pitchers, including five Hall of Famers. He has hit 13 grand slams, 15 homers in extra innings, has four three-homer games (plus another in the World Series) and once did this to Brad Lidge:
He has won three MVP awards (and finished second in the voting four times), hit .300 with 30-plus homers and 100-plus RBIs the first 10 seasons of his career and has posted an OPS over 1.000 in 77 postseason games. So, why has his chase to 600 career home runs felt like … well, not such a big deal?
Pujols hit his 599th home run Tuesday, a towering three-run shot down the left-field line off Bartolo Colon — No. 3 in his career off Colon — for his third homer in five games, after hitting just five in his first 42 games. With his next one, he’ll become the ninth member of the 600 club, and no matter how you feel about a few members of that club — Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa — it will be a monumental achievement for Pujols.
Yes, he’s a shell of his peak years in St. Louis, when he twice hit above .350, routinely belted 40 home runs, won Gold Gloves and ran the bases like a much faster man. But he hasn’t hit .300 since 2010 and he has been below replacement level this season. Remarkably, he still has four years remaining on his contract after this one, although considering the way he hobbles around these days after years of foot injuries, who knows if he’ll actually make it to the end of it.
To continue reading this article, click here.
