Los Angeles Angels: 5 Things you didn’t know about Albert Pujols

Los Angeles Angels slugger Albert Pujols has passed Willie Mays on the all-time home run list.

Los Angeles Angels slugger Albert Pujols hit his 661st  and 662nd home runs against the Texas Rangers on Friday night. This moves Pujols to sole possession of fifth place on the HR list.

In Pujols’ big night, the Angels beat the Rangers, 6-2. The home runs were given up by Demarcus Evans and Wes Benjamin of the Texas Rangers. Evans became the 428th pitcher Pujols has homered off of in his career. Only Barry Bonds, with 449, has more than Pujols.

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Now with 662 home runs, Pujols, now 40-years-old,  only trails Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714), and Alex Rodriguez (696).

If you have watched baseball in the past 20 seasons, or ESPN, you know who Albert Pujols is. He is one of the hitters, first baseman, and baseball players of all time. Ever since he debuted for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2001, he was purely dominant. In his rookie season, he took home the Rooke of the Year trophy; smashing 37 home runs, 130 RBI, batting .329 and scoring 112 runs.

Albert “The Machine” remained in St. Louis until 2011, playing under a 7-year, $100 million extensions that he signed before the 2004 season. As a Cardinal, Pujols won three National League MVPs, six Silver Sluggers, two Gold Gloves, and two World Series Championships. His 11 seasons in St. Louis are historic.

His stats in St. Louis were insane. Playing 1,705 games in 11 seasons, Pujols had 2,074 hits, 445 home runs, 1329 RBI, a .328 batting average, and a 1.037 OPS. He did all of this through his age-31 season.  After the Cardinals won the 2011 World Series, Pujols left the team for the Los Angeles Angels, signing a 10-year, $240 million contract.

As an Angel, Pujols mostly accumulated stats. He was an AL All-Star in 2015. He got his 3,000th  hit, 500th and 600thhome runs, and 1,500th and 2,000th RBI as an Angel. He is a career .299 hitter and has one year left on his contract.

Pujols is an inevitable, future first-ballot Hall of Famer. He will always be remembered as one of the best ever to swing a bat.

However, there are somethings about Pujols that you most likely did not know. Here are five things about  Albert Pujols that most People don’t know.

He’s not remembered for this, but Albert Pujols actually lived in NYC for a time.

Pujols was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and raised there for a few years. His mother was never really in the picture. His father’s mother, America, raised him, with the help of her 11 children, his aunts, and uncles.

Soon, Pujols, his father, and grandmother moved to New York City, attempting to improve their lives. They were very poor and lived in Washington Heights at the time. His father was usually present in his life, but often too drunk to help.

Pujols loved the game of baseball but could not afford a glove or a bucket of baseballs. He would create gloves out of old milk cartons and use limes as baseballs. He would get the limes from the friendly fruit vendor down the street.

At the time, their neighborhood was fairly sketchy and not very safe. In fact, a 16-year-old Pujols witnessed a man get shot to death in a bodega around the block from where he lived. This was very tough for Pujols and this caused his family to emigrate to Independence Missouri to join relatives.

Pujols enrolled in Fort Osage High School and was a two-time All-State baseball player. He soon received a scholarship to play at Maple Woods Community college, becoming the first of his family to enroll in college. He graduated High school a semester early in December 1998, so he could play college baseball at the Junior College level in 1999.

Most people knew that Pujols was from the DR and graduated High School in Missouri, but not a lot of people remember Pujols’ rough life in New York City.

What about Albert Pujols’ first-ever college game?

Pujols wanted to stay local and near his family when he went to college. In order to do so, he committed to Maple Woods Community College.

Originally, Pujols played Shortstop for the team because he was so athletic. Everybody knows Pujols as a First Baseman, but he did not become a full-time first baseman in the majors until 2004, spending time at third and in the outfield.

In the first game of his sole college season, Pujols did two things that every kid growing up playing baseball dreams of every doing. Not only did Pujols crush grand slam, but he also turned an unassisted triple play while playing SS.

This was a huge deal. This helped put him on the map. Major league scouts would travel from all over the country came to thing dingey, small-town junior college to learn more about Pujols. He was turning heads across the sport and teams loved him. Playing short, he hit .461 with 22 homeruns as a freshman. He declared for the MLB draft after his 1999 season.

Teams did have a few reservations about Pujols that hurt his draft stock. He was bigger than most people who played shortstop, so his build and what position would he play were major concerns. Also, because he moved around, there were some concerns about his age. Pujols has stated that he was born in 1980, but some people still think Pujols is older than he says he is.

Most people don’t know that Pujols went to college, even though it was just for one year. And even fewer people knew how historic he was in that lone college season.

Albert Pujols’ 1999 Summer Holdout

Due to the previously mentioned concerns of his build, age, and position, Pujols only gaged interest from a few teams. He was not drafted until the 13th round when the St. Louis Cardinals selected him with the 402nd overall pick in the 1999 Major League Baseball draft.

Pujols lived in Missouri for a few years and playing for the Cardinals meant that he would be near his family, his support system.

Since it was the 13th round, the Cardinals offered him a signing bonus of just $10,000. Pujols initially declined and spend his Summer playing for the Hay Larks of the Jayhawk Collegiate League. During his time on that team, Pujols drove in 48 runs, tied for the most in team history.

After seeing how dominant Pujols was in his Summer league, the Cardinals decided they really wanted Pujols to be a part of their franchise. As an attempt to change his mind, they upped the signing bonus to $60,000. Pujols signed with St. Louis a few days later.

This is not very common anymore. A player would be signing for a larger amount in the 13th round of a modern drat. Pujols decided to bet on himself by declining their initial offer and playing Summer ball. It worked.

A Tampa Bay scout actually quit because of Albert Pujols.

All of the concerns about Pujols before the draft hurt his stock and made him a risky pick. This shrunk the pool of interest for future 10-time All-Star.

Besides the St. Louis Cardinals and his home-town Kansas City Royals, another team that had their eye on Pujols in 1999 was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The scout for the Devil Rays that was very persistent about Pujols to the front office was Fernando Arango.

Not many people know who Fernando Arango was, but he was the guy who predicted Albert Pujols.

Arango was a scout for the Yankees from 1992-1995. He then became a scout for the Devil Rays. While working for the organization, he was scouting players in the Midwest for the 1999 draft and came across Albert Pujols. He watched him live a few times and fell in love with his booming style of play.

The Rays worked Pujols out before the draft. However, they had him playing catcher in the pre-draft workout.

The Devil Rays decided to pass on Pujols, in the first round, and every other round after that until he was drafted by the Cardinals in the 13th round.

Arango was so displeased that they missed out on Pujols that he quit his job. He left the Tampa Bay organization and became an agent until he went back to scouting for the Milwaukee Brewers. After Pujols left the Cardinals for the Los Angeles Angels, St. Louis eventually signed Arango to be a part of their scouting department.

Pujols and Arango were fairly friendly until Arango, 71, passed away in 2019.

People know that Pujols was a steal for the Cardinals but not many knew that a man was so passionate for Albert Pujols that he quit his job.