During his career a baseball player reaches many milestones and accomplishments.
In 1999 the St. Louis Cardinals drafted a young player from the Dominican Republic named Albert Pujols in the thirteenth round. On May 4, now a Las Angeles Angel, Pujols notched hit number 3,000. The single off of Seattle Mariner pitcher Mike Leake in the fifth inning made Pujols only the 32nd player in Major League Baseball history to reach the plateau.
The broken bat single was not the only hit Pujols would get during the game; he hit a second single in the ninth inning that plated two runs. The Angels beat the Mariners 5-0.
Pujols is the fourth player in as many years to reach the 3,000 hit mark – Alex Rodriguez joined the 3,000 club in 2015 with a solo home run, Ichiro Suzuki joined the club with a triple in 2016, and last year fellow Dominican Adrian Beltre joined the club last year playing for the Texas Rangers.
Having just reached the 3,000 hit mark and having already amassed 620 home runs, Pujols needs just 62 RBIs – Runs Batted In – to become only the fourth player to become a member of the 3,000 hit, 600 home run, and 2,000 rbi club; joining Alex Rodriguez, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays.
Speaking on this major accomplishment, Pujols said, “I’m aware of the legacy and the people that I tie and am on the same page right now. But at the end of the day it’s about winning a championship. Nothing would be more special than in September and October and playing in the playoffs and bringing a championship back to the city of Anaheim.”
feature photo credit: By Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA – Albert Pujols, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61828467