OPINION By Alexa D'Amato

  The St. Louis Cardinals’ designated hitter & first baseman deserves and will have a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

  Albert Pujols was drafted by the Cardinals in 1999 and his tenure with the ball club lasted until the 2012 season. He went on to play with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim until he was designated for assignment in May 2021. After being released, he quickly signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers where he finished his 2021 campaign. Once the MLB lockout concluded in early March, he signed with his original team to complete his career, and come full circle.

  Pujols’ consistency and fantastic work ethic is something that deserves more recognition than it gets. From 2003 through the 2010 season, he hit above .300. He won 3 National League MVP trophies in that span. His .300 and above streak failed to continue as in the 2011 season he hit .299 and barely missed the mark. The following year continued to show his production even as an aging veteran as he finished the season hitting .285. Despite this, Pujols will leave pro baseball with a .296 average, the second most RBIs in a career with 2218 (Hank Aaron ranks first with 2297), and the fourth most career home runs in MLB history (703). He sits behind only Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), and Babe Ruth (714).

  It wasn’t always easy this year for the future Hall of Famer. In the opening month of April, he hit .267. Although those may seem like solid numbers, the sample size was small as he only had 30 plate appearances. The 42-year-old began to show his age as in May and June he had a batting average of .188 and .158. As he struggled with a slash of .198/.294/.336, Pujols later admitted he had nearly retired. He grew frustrated and irritated with the direction his final season was going. Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol, hitting coach Jeff Albert, and many others on the coaching staff had to talk him out of the decision. That talk not only continued his career but ignited a fire inside Pujols. After deliberation, he turned back the clock and played like the Pujols that didn’t leave St. Louis.

   Albert’s final 3 months of statistics and records speak for themselves, and practically every baseball fan was thrilled to watch him chase the record. In the next three months, he slashed .314/.377/.681 to go along with 20 home runs. On September 23rd, Social media and fans in attendance seemed to hold their breath when the bat flew off the ball at Dodger Stadium, and it felt like every single baseball fan was rooting for him. The usual amount of hate athletes get daily seemed to disappear in the stream of excited Tweets, all celebrating Pujols’ 700th career home run. For a moment in the lengthy baseball season, everybody stopped to watch this moment in history. Other games being played at the same time were paused as the crowd and players witnessed an outstanding accomplishment. Pujols is one of the most beloved players in baseball, next to class acts such as Ichiro Suzuki, David Ortiz, and Miguel Cabrera.

  One of the most overlooked Hall of Fame requirements is the character clause which critics argue kept players with worthy statistics out of Cooperstown, such as Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, Omar Vizquel, and more. If there’s one thing that Pujols has shown he has, it’s character. When he hit his 697th home run, officially passing Babe Ruth and securing fourth place in the all-time home run record, he met the fans who caught it after the game when they went to give the ball back. Pujols rejected their offer to take the ball back. What everyone didn’t know is that on that day one year ago, one of the fan’s fathers had passed away, and when she told Pujols that, he told her to keep the baseball. Not only did they leave with a piece of history, but Pujols signed two more balls for them. His kindness was a constant throughout his whole career, years before his 700th home run, he was seen giving a young fan the jersey off his back after a game. He is a class act on and off the field.

  Pujols has the statistics and hardware to be voted into Cooperstown and he’s one of few players who have shown their genuine character and morals. His 22-year career has shown his perseverance and willingness to continue to learn and adapt to the game, especially with new technology being introduced later in his career. His dedication to the St. Louis Cardinals is especially evident and admirable in his choice to return to the organization for his final year. It was a sentimental and symbolic way to show his thanks to the Cardinals fans and as a way to thank the organization for giving him a chance to start his career.

  His contributions to baseball history will never be forgotten, especially by being voted into the Hall of Fame in 2027.