Albert Ruthian Pujols

June 22, 2009 · Paul Raymond · Jump to comments

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So the biggest rumor of the day has nothing to do with trades, signings or anything like that. The rumor of the day is whether or not did St Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols called his massive grand slam against the Kansas City Royals.

The St. Louis Dispatch reports:

After opening the third inning with a fly out, Pujols returned to the Cardinals clubhouse to review video. There he predicted to assistant hitting coach Mike Aldrete that his next at-bat would ricochet off the yet-to-open Royals Hall of Fame behind the visitors bullpen in left field. “He didn’t say he might hit the Hall of Fame. He said he would hit the Hall of Fame,” Aldrete recalled.

Pujols returned in the fourth inning against Royals starting pitcher Gil Meche with the bases loaded and one out in a 4-4 game. Pujols and Meche reached a full count. By then Meche had shown Pujols every pitch in his repertoire except a change-up. When Meche finally threw the pitch, Pujols swatted it some 423 feet off a Hall of Fame window.

Now I have to admit we’ve heard many stories where teammates claim to have called a shot, or that a player predicted he’d hit a homerun. Very rarely thou have we ever heard of a player pinpointing exactly where the ball will go.

There’s only one occurrence of this that i can think of. That was during the 1932 World Series when Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees pointed in the direction of center field on a 2-2 count and blasted a ball to deep right-center. There is still much debate to this day if that shot had even been called.

So did Pujols call yesterday’s shot? I don’t know but its a great story if he had.

There is one thing for sure thou. Albert Pujols is the BEST player in baseball. In fact he’s the best player in recent memory, sorry A-Rod but it’s true. With the way Pujols is toying with pitchers we can even start the argument about being the greatest of all time.

Adam Wainwright said, “Face it, I’m playing with the best player of all time. It’s ridiculous. You almost have to focus on what you’re doing because you can get caught up in what he’s doing. He’s that good.” ”

Pujols is currently on pace for 60 homers and 160 rbis. Those kind of numbers are just astounding when you consider the era we are in. The numbers might slack off a little but there’s know doubt that he’s the best player I’ve ever seen play.

Here’s a quote from teammate Skip Schumaker “After the second home run we just laughed. It’s just so easy. It’s a higher level. It’s like he’s here and everybody else is at Triple-A.”

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