It’s a chance they didn’t want to take. Why pick an overweight
kid with some power when there are more highly touted kids
available? Heck, he may have hit one over 500 feet in high
school, but he’s just not built to play Major League Baseball.
He’ll never amount to anything but a power hitter who strikes out a lot
and can’t steal a base. The chances seemed slim that the young
Jose Alberto Pujols would become a Major League ballplayer.
The steady, flowing beat of Aerosmith’s Dream On can
be heard from the speakers. It seems like "dream on" is what the
scouts said about Pujols becoming a superstar player. How could
an overweight, Spanish speaking kid from the Dominican Republic be a
superstar baseball player? He grew up using sticks for bats and
milk cartons for gloves. What the scouts of all the other MLB
teams failed to see is how much those past experiences had helped Jose
Alberto Pujols become the best baseball prospect in the last century.
Growing
up without the luxeries of a true baseball field or the real equipment
that today’s kids have turned out to be a luxery of its own for
Pujols. He learned to suffice without the best, he learned to
make himself better no matter what the odds were. The truth of
the matter is, the odds were definitely stacked against Albert
Pujols. When he first reached the United States, he witnessed a
man being murdered in the rougher areas of New York City. After a
road trip, Albert arrived with his grandmother, America Pujols in
Kansas City. To this day, Albert’s family (now his wife, Deidre)
lives in Kansas City. He has become an international superstar
and possibly the most talented baseball player in the history of
baseball. By the time his career is over, the possibility that
"most talented" becomes "best" is very high. He will set records,
no, he will shatter records. He will do it with the
grace and humbleness that he always applies to life and baseball.
He will continue to support his wife and young children, and he will
continue to put on an amazing show for the best fans in baseball.
It’s
very easy to just point a finger at Albert Pujols and say he’s the best
player for the Cardinals. One could say he is simply "the face of
the franchise". While this is true, it is too specific.
Albert Pujols is not just the face of the Cardinals’ franchise. He is the face of Major League Baseball.
The good thing about this is that Pujols isn’t just some poster boy,
some gimmick. He has not been chosen by the MLB to be their good
influence, he chose this path on his own. He does not lead by his
voice, either. One thing about Albert Pujols is as I mentioned
earlier, his humble attitude. His approach is just to play the
game he loves and pull all the strings he can to help other
people.
One good example of Pujols’ helping ways is his
charity, the Pujols Family Foundation. Name one other MLB player
who’s slogan/motto is "Faith, Family, and Others". I’ll give ten
seconds to think about that one.
I didn’t think so. As the song Dream On continues
to play in the background, Pujols continues to tear through the world
of baseball. He seems to be "cleaning up" the sport. After
an injury and a few recovery games this season, Pujols is still set to
hit 63 home runs. While this is far from the 80 or so homers he
was on pace for earlier this season, it would still be enough to break
the "clean" home run record set by Roger Maris.
We all
know that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were fun to watch, and then we
all know they let down the sport of baseball by allowing the essence of
cheating into their lives. We know that the possibility of Barry
Bonds using steroids is definitely a good one. If I assume that
those guys actually were cheating, would you see Pujols having a 63
home run season as the new record? In the "rebuilding era" of
baseball where fingers are pointed and names are listed, Pujols seems
to avoid these allegations—although there will always be uncertainty,
and that has been brought up before—because of how he approaches the
game. He is not a loud-mouth Jose Canseco, a finger-pointing
Rafael Palmeiro, or a "pleading-the-fifth" Mark McGwire.
Presumably, everyone suspected of using steroids has disappeared from
baseball. McGwire is a no-show, Sammy Sosa’s name is never
brought up anymore, and Palmeiro hasn’t been brought up since his
failed steroid test. Only Barry Bonds remains seen to the public
eye, because he’s still playing and is trying to break the home run
record. This is no reason to think he is any different from the
other guys, because if Barry Bonds could, he would disappear from the public eye completely. He
claims that the media has ruined his life, and he points that finger
(although not in public) at the world of sports journalism for
it. Barry Bonds, there are three fingers pointing back at you.
For
these reasons Albert Pujols is the face of baseball. He doesn’t
have the essence of cheating, lying, complaining, or anything bad about
him. This is an extraordinarily talented man and he’s actually
put his talent to good use. Players in the past, such as J.D.
Drew, have not done the same, and their careers have gone down the
drain. Others have chosen the dark path of steroid use and hidden
from the world. Then again, there is Pujols, standing tall above
the rest of baseball because of his decisions and stellar
reputation. He is the face of the franchise, he is the face of
baseball, and he doesn’t lead by words. He leads by example.
Written by APC Staff Writer Brady Holzhauer
Posted by AlbertPujolsClub.com on Jul 5 2006 in Pujols News
For anyone else who watched yesterdays game, they will know what I mean when I say, "That’s Our Albert." After a Cardinal rally in the top of the 9th inning to tie up the game, Pujols came up in the 10th vs. All-Star pitcher Roy Oswalt, who was stuck in a weird closing situation. He led off the 10th with a solo shot that proved to be the winner for the Cardinals.
The St. Louis Cardinals got on a winning note Tuesday night after deafeating the Atlanta Braves with a final score of 6-3. The game took quite some time, as a two hour and 52 minute rain delay in the sixth inning. 
Albert Pujols wasn’t 4 for 4 tonight, but he did finish with four hits in six at-bats in a losing effort to the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night. On a night full of home runs blasts, Albert Pujols was the only power hitter not to get a piece of the action. Scott Rolen, Yadier Molina, Scott Spiezio, and Jim Edmonds all went yard as the Cardinals lost to the Royals in 11 innings, the final score being 8-7. The Cardinals have lost 10 of their last 11, a pitiful showing for this team and its talent.
