Anybody who said Albert Pujols would be having his best season in his last ten would have been called crazy.  Especially when he’s doing it in a St. Louis uniform.  Nobody expected the events of March 28th, 2022 to unfold the way they did, as Pujols and the Cardinals would agree to a free agent contract worth 2.5 million dollars.  

Pujols, now 42 years old, inked the deal straight off the heels of his L.A. Dodgers release in May of 2021.  This coming after a poor start to the season with the Angels, coupled with low hitting numbers coming off the bench during his time in Dodger blue.

Knowing that this was his last season, and that he was in close proximity to the homerun record held by Alex Rodriguez (696), Albert, the club, and the fans were all hopeful that he would break the record, and maybe even reach 700 for his illustrious career.

Even with all of this hope, it still did not seem feasible.  Even after hitting the first few home runs during the beginning of the season, the end goal of breaking the records still did not seem possible in a season. The fact that Pujols was also not an everyday player yet was demoralizing for the club, as well as the fans.

That was until he got on a hot streak.  He started the month of August on fire, adding eight home runs to his already surprising total.  With each passing longball, the possibility of Albert breaking Rodriguez’s record seemed to get closer and closer with each passing game.  

Finally on September 11th, the feat which seemed impossible had finally occurred.  Albert Pujols had officially hit home run #697, becoming the player with the fourth most home runs in Major League Baseball history.

Now the question remains, will “The Machine” do it?  Will he reach the milestone only three players before him have reached?  As of this writing, Pujols needs only 3 more to reach 700, and he has about 20 games left to do it.

“The Prince” Albert Pujols is a definite first-ballot Hall of Famer, But as he closes the book on his playing career, can he add another unbeatable record to his immaculate resume?