“…The last will be the first”. Álbert Pujols is the most eloquent example of that biblical sentence: he arrived “by the wind” and will have primacy. The occasion that was merely invited to the St. Louis Cardinals Training Camps will remain marked as incipient historical ink: accompanying another immense as unique specimens.
Because Pujols -to the saga of the 700 home runs- will achieve a feat that only Hank Aaron has, who retired with 755 shots, 2,396 runs batted in and 3,771 hits, in which the unrepentant Babe Ruth does not appear, perhaps the best athlete of all the times.
Pujols, whose title he won against all odds in 2001 (he had only one year in the minor leagues), today touches the greatest glory with the right-handed clubbing man, and would equally conform with Ruth, an equally unique triangle in the annals of baseball.
Except for Aaron, never could a hitter of such a home run parameter exhibit excellence as a hitter.
The 3,700 merits
When Pujols hits his 700th homer, he will leave behind the great “Bambino” Ruth, Willie Mays and a true stellar constellation of hammers, in addition to Alex Rodríguez, Barry Bonds (if they qualify for their conflicts of prohibited substances), as an event that breaks all parameters offensive.
Two years ago Pujols reached the goal of 3,000 indisputable players (3,371 at the time of writing), a figure that barely contains 32 other members of the very select club.
While the super-elitist mark of seven hundred tetrabases only has access to four members when The Machine gets it as an epilogue to his flashing and dying career.
The galactic Aaron is not only second all-time in home runs, with his whopping 755, but he also has the feat of being the third-best no-man’s-land hitter in the history of the sport (3,771 hits).
Ruth hit 714 home runs, by far the original mark for decades, but the Bambino couldn’t collect 3,000 hits. The intractable Mays was left with 3,293 hits, but far behind in home runs (660).
Rodríguez (3,115 / 696) suspended twice by MLB and Bonds (2,935 / 762), whose entry into the Hall of Fame today has a major obstacle due to suspicious substance use, failed to join both leaders (3000 H + 700 HR).
And another 2000 reasons…
If the Pujols rod of the 3000+700 is enormous, not to mention the height added by another giant number such as the 2000 towed laps.
This true offensive machine also keeps Aaron company as the only ones who can put together the “three hits,” which stretches to four, adding the extra-base hits line.
The San Luis Zenith had 2,203 RBIs to date, while Aaron drove in 2,297 runners (prevailing mark).
When you factor in the extra-base hits stat, they’ll both have 1,400 or more, equally the only ones in history (Aaron retired at 1,477) with such a disparate package.
Notably, until Pujols reaches that other milestone (he was 1,399 at the time of writing), only Bonds (1,440) is accompanying Aaron on multi-base hits.
