In honor of the Baseball's All Star Game next Tuesday in St. Louis, let's take a moment to praise the super-human greatness of the Cardinals' own Albert Pujols. Sir Albert will be starting at first base for the NL, having earned nearly 1 million more fan votes than any other player in either league. He is also widely considered the most feared hitter in the game and a Gold Glove fielder at his position. For all that, Pujols is actually underrated and doesn't get nearly as much attention as he deserves.
As of today, with the season just over half over, Albert is batting .336 with 31 home runs and 82 RBIs. These would be All-Star - and borderline MVP - stats for an entire season, and are mind-boggling for the halfway point. Almost single-handedly, Pujols has put a very mediocre Cardinals team on top of the NL Central Division. It is also worth noting that Albert usually gains strength as the season goes along, with a second half that's notably better than the first. If that trend continues, Albert could end up getting the Major League's first Triple Crown in more than 40 years and register what is arguably the best single-season batting performance ever.
This would be par for the course, because in his ninth year in the Majors, Albert is already well on course to having the best big-league career ever. Check out the stats at the bottom of his Wiki page. No other player in the game - past or present - has performed at such a consistently high level, year in and year out (I know that's big claim, but one of these days I'm going to get around to writing a bigger article that demonstrates this, with fancy statistics to back it up).
In addition to being an incredible player, Albert is a true class act. He's a devoted Christian and family man who donates prodigious amounts of time and money to helping people with Down's Syndrome (he adopted his wife's previous child who was born with the condition). Unlike the second-best player in the game (A-Rod), there's never been a hint of scandal, or allegations of steroid use, in his life or career. Albert is also a big booster of his adopted hometown of St. Louis and says he wants to stay there his entire career (provided the team remains committed to winning), even though he could easily sign with the Yankees, Red Sox or bigger market team for far more money. When he steps up to the plate next Tuesday, you can bet the St. Louis fans in attendance will give him a standing O the likes of which you rarely see - and it will be completely deserved.
Yahoo just posted this story, which is a great complement to this post
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AsHlkSPa9LyptG8JY0Rm5eoRvLYF?slug=jp-pujols071409&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Posted by: LarryK | July 14, 2009 at 01:06 PM
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Posted by: watch scrubs | October 30, 2009 at 03:03 AM
Albert is amazing - even though the second half of his season was not nearly as good as the first half, he's still pretty much a shoo-in for his third NL MVP, probably unanimously. I'm sure it won't be his last. And I do plan to do that statistical analysis I mention above, one of these days.
Posted by: LarryK | October 30, 2009 at 09:14 AM