Baseball's Golden Boy and Our Generations Last Hope

Yesterday afternoon Albert Pujols hit his 42nd home run of the 2009 season.

But that homerun means so much more then pushing Pujols to 69th all-time in home runs, it gives baseball fans a glimmer of hope that “hey maybe there is one big time power hitter of our time who isn’t on steroids.”

But then on the other hand maybe he just hasn’t got caught yet.

I don’t mean to take a cheap shot at Pujols because as a sports fan I know important it is for the game of baseball to have a guy like Pujols smashing dingers without cheating but as a sports fan I also know that at this point its hard to believe anybody isn’t shooting up or popping pills in baseball.

But following what Pujols does both on and off the field it would be heart breaking to find out that this guy was cheating.

Pujols first child Isabella was born with Down syndrome and in 2005 him and his wife Deidre launched the Pujols Family Foundation which is dedicated to the love, care and development of people with Down syndrome. As well the Foundation focuses on helping the poor in the Domincan Republic, Pujols home.

The Albert Pujols Wellness Center is scheduled to open this fall, and is dedicated to helping adults with Down syndrome. Pujols also supports the Ronald McDonald House and the Boys and Girls Club of America.

In 2008 Pujols was commended by baseball for his work off the field when he was presented with the Roberto Clemente Award, an award presented to the one player who exemplifies sportsmanship, community involvement and contribution to his team.

On the field Pujols accomplishments are also tough to compare with. In just his ninth season in the majors Pujols sits at 361 home runs, hitting for 40 plus home runs in five of those seasons including this season. To put his numbers into perspective, it took Barry Bonds 14 seasons to hit 361 home runs and Alex Rodriguez 11 seasons. Pujols is also only 29 years old meaning he’s got many years left to try and give Bonds home run record a run for its money… Legally.

Interestingly enough Pujols home run numbers have consistently stayed above 30 over the course of his career, unlike someone like Barry Bonds. At the beginning of Bonds career he weighed 185 lbs and only hit for 40 plus home runs twice in his first 10 seasons.

By 1997 he weighed 205 lbs and by 2001 (the same year he hit for the record 73 home runs) Bonds weighed 228 lbs. He stayed that weight to the end of his career and from 1997 to 2007-he hit for 40 plus home runs seven times.

As for Pujols, there are no exact stats but all you have to do is look at pictures of when he came into the league and look at pictures of him now to see that there has been no significant changes to his body type unlike a Barry Bonds.

Pujols also holds some interesting stats in 2009 that the average baseball fans may not look at. He leads the league with 39 intentional walks, on base percentage (.443) and slugging percentage (.669) For those who care to know slugging percentage is calculated by:

 1. Adding up all official at bats. Do not include those at bats that resulted in a walk, sacrifices or hit by pitch.

 2. Add up total bases. Total bases are how many bases you reached in all the times you hit safely.

 3. Divide total bases by official at bats.

The equation basically calculates how powerful the hitter is, the record being held by Barry Bonds (.863) who set it in 2001. Pujols has led the league in this category three of the last four years.

When asked about Pujols, Kansas City Royals ace pitcher Zach Greinke simply said, “You come to learn that every hitter is human, except Pujols.”

So as Pujols tries to capture his third NL MVP and first home run title, baseball fans, sit at home and pray that this one didn’t cheat.

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