BL Blogcast: Albert Pujols on his All-Star election
CINCINNATI — Sure, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols may have more grand slams in his career than All-Star selections, but eight invitations to the midsummer classic in nine years is pretty good.
Yet he’s never had an All-Star election like this.
With 31-homers and a hometown flavor as his tailwind, Pujols surged to a NL-record amount of votes. This is well-covered in this morning paper — as is the St. Louis flavor of the 80th All-Star Game, which will be July 14 at Busch Stadium — but before we get to some video from the clubhouse Sunday, some facts: Pujols led with nearly 5.4 million votes, the second-most ever for an individual player in a given year. It is the second time that Pujols has led all players in All-Star votes and the third time he’s led the National League. Consider the vote totals, however, that he previously led with:
- Led the NL in 2003 with 2,030,703
- Led MLB in 2006 with 3,418,555
- Set NL record in 2009 with 5,397374
The totals speak to the growing volume of votes that the All-Star Game has generated. Pujols also received a record number of online votes this season, according to MLB, though those numbers weren’t readily and accurately available, an official said. But the totals also speak to Pujols’ growing profile. Here he is on his election to the All-Star Game’s starting lineup from the clubhouse Sunday in Cincinnati:
ALL-STAR REACTION BLOGCASTS: Yadier Molina. … Ryan Franklin.
-30-
Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
I am most concerned about Albert hitting in the home run derby. I saw him rub his right elbow at least four times during Saturday’s game and hope he doesn’t hurt it hitting meaningless home runs.
Thank you God for putting Albert Pujols on the St. Louis Cardinals.
When the last stat is written he will undeniably, unequivocally, and indisputably be the greatest baseball player of all time.
Pujuls
Gherig
Ruth
Mays
Dimmagio
Williams
Ref:When the last stat is written he will undeniably, unequivocally, and indisputably be the greatest baseball player of all time.
Pujuls
Gherig
Ruth
Mays
Dimmagio
Williams
and of course Musial is forgotten again!
How about including Hammer’n Hank (and some pitchers) on that list?
Yeah, Stubby may want you to include Derosa on the list too. How is that move working out for you so far? Making an impact yet?
It’s been an honor to have had Albert in a Cardinals uniform for so long. It’s going to be really hard seeing him play for another team. There are only a handful of teams that can pay Albert what he’s worth AND field a competitive team. Unfortunately, St. Louis isn’t one of them. I just hope he ends up in the AL, and not with the Cubs or Mets.
Enjoy every moment he’s in St. Louis folks. He is truly special.
Boy, I about had a heart attack when I saw the title for this article. I thought it said “Pujols released” and not “Pujols pleased” Whew!!
DG, did you try to get a link in which the guy’s microphone battery doesn’t fail several times? This is unwatchable!