Written by Paul Simon wrote a song back in the mid-80s with a chorus that states, “If you’ll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal, I can call you Betty, And Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al.” While Paul Simon, a lifelong New York Yankees fan, did not write this song about baseball, nor any baseball player in particular, but when played against a baseball backdrop, the chorus line can bring to mind an almost certain baseball Hall of Famer who’s been playing for the last 20 years at the major league level. The player in question, who was, until recently, the Designated Hitter for the Los Angeles Angels, is none other than the future hall of famer Albert Pujols.
On Thursday, May 6th, the Angels designated Pujols for assignment in the final year of his whopping ten-year $240 million contract. What this means is that the man who currently is fifth on the all-time list for home runs, extra-base hits, and doubles, 13th on the list with 3,253 hits, and second on the list with 2,112 runs batted in, is no longer a part of the Angels franchise. Yes, this has not been Pujols’ season so far, with the ten-time All-Star only having five home runs and 12 runs batted in over the 24 games the Angels have played to this point. At the age of 41, he is currently the oldest active player in Major League Baseball and competing against players who could easily be half his age. Unfortunately, he is extraneous on a team that has 26-year old Shohei Ohtani as their designated hitter, when he’s not pitching. Ohtani is also currently tied for the American League lead in home runs at ten.
At the beginning of the season, Pujols had expressed that this could very well be his last hurrah in baseball as a player. After Thursday’s conversation with Angels general manager, Perry Minasian, and team president, John Carpino, Pujols’s career may have fizzled out instead of ending with the kind of farewell tour players like Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera received. Minasian made a statement about the conversation saying, ” He’s (Pujols) as professional as any player I’ve ever dealt with. There was no fight, there was no argument; this was a conversation that went back and forth. He expressed his feelings, we expressed ours; he understood where we stood on the whole situation. Things did not end bad. I gave him a big hug.” Minasian went on to state that, “If the situation was different and there were at-bats for him to play here, it would be different.”
Normally, one would hope that once a player of Pujols’ stature is in the twilight season of their career, they will have the opportunity to play out the season and be lauded for their achievements by the teams they play against. It would also provide fans the opportunity to get one final chance to see these players in action before they move on to other roles either in baseball, broadcasting, or elsewhere. Pujols has yet to release a statement about his future, and it is uncertain whether or not another team will sign him to finish out the season. Many would hope to see him finish out where he started, in St. Louis, however, the Cardinals have no need for a designated hitter playing in the National League, and their first base position, Pujols’ former position, is currently filled by Paul Goldschmidt and Matt Carpenter, neither of whom are expected to be leaving any time soon.
From the time he stepped foot on the field with the Cardinals in 2001, thanks to Mark McGwire convincing then-manager Tony La Russa to put Pujols on the Opening Day roster, to 2016, Pujols has been one of the most feared hitters in baseball. As the years began to creep up, as they tend to do, his performance began to slip, and it seemed like the inevitable end was coming. Pujols continued to be a force to be reckoned with, however, he was not at his Cardinals prime, and teams were able to adjust to his style of hitting. During his ten-year, 1,705-game tenure with St. Louis, Pujols hit 445 home runs and collected 1,329 runs batted in. Since moving to Los Angeles, Pujols was still productive, but he leaves with 222 home runs and 783 runs batted in over the course of nine years and 1,181 games. Pujols did have some milestone moments in LA, hitting his 500th and 600th career home runs along with collecting his 3,000th hit.
The decision to release Pujols inevitably caused mixed emotions across the baseball community. Fans are upset about the way the team dismissed him, former players, such as fellow Dominican and Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez, express their disappointment with the Angels, and teammates now must look for new leadership within their clubhouse. Opposing pitchers may breathe a sigh of relief knowing they may not be facing him again, depending on where, or if, he signs in the upcoming days. The thing we must all remember is baseball, especially at the professional level, is a business. Decisions, whether popular or not, are typically made in what someone at the top considers to be “in the best interests of the organization.” The other thing to consider is that the days of players staying with one team for an entire career, or a team being loyal to a player for their entire career, are gone. In the era of “Moneyball,” so-called “franchise players” can be traded away, or, as in this case, released, at the drop of a hat.
Whatever is next for Albert Pujols, I am quite sure it will be another fantastic chapter to his storied career. Whether he moves into retirement, as he hinted to at the beginning of the season, or finds another team to finish out his season with, he has left his mark on and off the field of baseball.
Looking at the career of Albert Pujols, one can see many examples of leadership that can be applied to any organization. Instilling pride in one’s profession, like Pujols demonstrated time and time again throughout his career, is the sign of a professional, as opposed to someone who’s just collecting a paycheck. So is not being content to just “sit on the bench,” but wanting to be out there “on the field” every day attacking life with gusto, and being able to go to sleep at the end of the day feeling like you gave everything you had to those around you while looking forward to doing it again the next day. Lastly, wanting to make those around you better, as Pujols did quite often with his teammates, is one of the truest signs of leadership because then it truly is about the organization and not just an individual.
So, much like Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, as a lifelong Red Sox fan, I may not have liked seeing Albert Pujols play against the Red Sox, I still respect him for all that he has done in and for the sport of baseball. Whether or not he plays another game this season, I tip my hat to one of the all-time greats.