Pujols 15th All-Time

Three home runs on Monday night moved Albert Pujols into sole possession of 15th place on MLB’s All-Time Home Run leaderboard with 549 career round-trippers.

“I don’t want to lie to you, this morning it hit me,” shared Pujols in a conversation Tuesday night.

The achievement was particularly special because he passed Mike Schmidt on the list, who provided an influence several years earlier when the Hall of Famer was invited to Spring Training for the St. Louis Cardinals as a guest of Tony La Russa.

“I remember him bringing Mike one year to just tell us about preparation, about motivation, what it takes to win, and all that,” said Pujols. “To say that I’ve known him for 15 years now and last year, we were in New York–I was receiving an award for the Foundation and we were at the same dinner. He made the joke about him teaching me how to play the game and let it be known that part of my success is because of what he said. It’s just like a little joke that he mentioned in his speech.

“To me it’s really special because I know him. He’s a legend. It’s just amazing–if you would’ve told me fifteen years ago that I was going to be able to hit 500 and be chasing all these guys, I would’ve told you, you’re crazy and there’s no way. I’m blessed and like I said, I give all the credit to the dear Lord.”

Besides praising above for his return to health, Pujols put in the work during the off-season to get back into the shape needed for this season

“Getting in the weight room and being able to do the things I wasn’t capable to do the last couple of years–getting my legs strong,” said Pujols, noting that’s where he generates the power in his swing. But that strength was put in jeopardy a couple of weeks before the start of the season , when Albert tweeked his knee again.

“I was like, oh man here we go again,” said Pujols, who got off to a slow start for the season and hit only 3 home runs through April. Since then, he’s hit 26 home runs while driving in 51 runs.

“Then my knee started getting healthy and strong,” said Albert. “When I was able to get in my stance the way that I wanted to, that’s when it clicked for me. I was like wow, this is how I want to feel. I want to be able to feel my leg, be able to get down to the two-strike approach–that was something I couldn’t do it in the past couple of years.”

With hopes to play another six or seven years, Pujols acknowledges some pretty significant milestones could be within his reach, but in his customary fashion, isn’t looking too far ahead.

“I don’t think about it, you know me,” he said. “I take every game like it’s my last game of my career. Every at-bat like it’s the last at-bat of my career. I give the credit to Tony–Tony taught me that.”

“I don’t want to think about what can happen,” continued Pujols. “Maybe in seven years, if I’m still playing, if I’m still healthy and chasing those milestones we can talk about it. But for me right now, it’s just hard.

“People always ask me, how do you block it? It’s easy, I just don’t think about it. I just play the game and be blessed that I’m here. Live one day at a time–our life is numbered, I don’t know if I’m going to be here tomorrow. So, I try to enjoy as much as I can, the present–where I’m standing right now and to try and do the best that I can to help our ball club to win.”

Listen to the full interview above to hear more about Albert’s relationship with Mike Trout and continued appreciation for the fans in St. Louis and the rest of Cardinals Nation.

photo credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports