As a Cubs fan, I think it’s supposed to be difficult for me to be happy for Albert Pujols tonight. But as a baseball fan, I just can’t bring myself to it. This is awesome. Full stop. With not one, but TWO home runs tonight in Los Angeles, Albert Pujols has become just the FOURTH player in MLB history with at least 700 career home runs.
Here’s a look at the last two shots that put him over the top tonight (which … of course it went down like that):
Those were numbers 20 and 21 on the season. The first one was an absolute BOMB (108 MPH, 434 feet) and the second left the bat at 100 MPH traveling 389 feet into the history books.
No. 700 came against Phil Bickford … in case you’re prepping for bar trivia.
Somehow, as a 42-year-old with FIVE STRAIGHT horrible offensive seasons, Albert Pujols is slashing .266/.339/.531 (144 wRC+) this season. I cannot believe he managed to hit well enough this year to reach this plateau. Congratulations are in order. No matter how much heartache Pujols has given us over the years, he deserves your respect. First-ballot, unanimous Hall-of-Famer.
Pujols joins Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), and Babe Ruth (714) as the only players with 700 home runs in MLB history.
And the crazy thing is we have another extremely significant home run milestone waiting for us in Aaron Judge, who’s just one away from tying Roger Maris’ Yankee and AL single season home run record (61 in 1961).
Update: Just some cool stuff I found, I thought you might enjoy.