‘THE MACHINE’ ON THE MARCH!
With 700 Career HRs in the Books, Pujols Closes in on Babe Ruth’s 2nd-Place All-Time RBI Total
Cardinals’ legend needs to drive in 7 runs to surpass the ‘Bambino’
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Albert Pujols did more than become only the fourth player in Major League Baseball history to hit 700 or more home runs in his career — Pujols’ two homers and five RBIs Friday night at Dodger Stadium gave him a very real chance at overtaking Babe Ruth for second-place among the game’s all-time RBI leaders.
Pujols now sits in third place on the all-time list with 2,208 RBIs in his illustrious 22-season career. That’s 22 more RBIs than Alex Rodriguez accumulated and a mere six RBIs short of Babe Ruth’s second-place total of 2,214.
Henry “Hammerin’ Hank” Aaron leads the pack with 2,297 career RBIs.
Can Pujols do it?
Of course he can, and it would be great to see it happen. But whether Pujols, nicknamed “The Machine” early in his career, does or doesn’t blast pass Ruth for the second spot among all-time RBI leaders, his 2022 season has been something to witness.
Only the most optimistic fans envisioned a season like the one Pujols is having now. Cardinal fans knew he still had at least a little gas left in the tank, but no one expected this kind of mileage out of №5.
When you stop to think that the Cardinals got the future Hall-of-Famer at $2.5 million for one year, and the Angels paid him $250 million for 10 years beginning with the 2012 season, it’s almost like the Cardinals were able to buy a valuable antique worth its weight in gold for a couple bucks at a yard sale.
The bottom line, though, is that baseball fans everywhere benefit from what Pujols is doing this year. It’s a career close-out for the ages, with the potential for another great individual accomplishment by passing Ruth in total RBIs.
There’s also a very real chance that Pujols will get the opportunity to win a third World Series title if the Redbirds can get past a very tough National League playoff field.
As the late, great Cardinals’ announcer Jack Buck used to say, “Stranger things have…
