The narratives of Albert “El Hombre” Pujols and Stan “The Man” Musial continue to be woven together in St. Louis Cardinals history with the Nov. 24 announcement that Pujols had matched Musial with his third National League Most Valuable Player award.
Pujols, this year’s unanimous selection, now has won in 2005, 2008 and 2009; Musial won in 1943, 1946 and 1948.
Cardinal fans view both men as gentlemen and legends. Musial has a statue at Busch Stadium. Pujols is working on one.
Pujols, 29, is one of America’s more prominent Christian athletes. He and his wife, Deidre, run the Pujols Family Foundation, which seeks to honor God by strengthening families.
The couple and their three children live in Wildwood, a St. Louis suburb that prides itself on its educational excellence, character and natural beauty and where they attend West County Community Church, a Missouri Baptist Convention-affiliated congregation that runs about 400–600 people in Sunday worship.
Pujols is the only player in major league history to bat .300, hit 30 home runs and drive in 100 runs in each of his first nine seasons. For eight of those years he also scored at least 100 runs, falling just short in 2007 with 99. In honor of that prodigious production, his ESPN nickname is “The Machine.”
Musial and Pujols are two of only four players in history to have a career batting average above .330 and less than 500 strikeouts at the time of their 300th home runs. The others are Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio.
“It’s awesome to have 45,000 people to play in front of, 45,000 people every day,” Pujols said. “And it’s awesome to be, like everybody says, one of the best players out there. But it’s awesome to have a good relationship with Jesus Christ, and knowing that it’s about Him.” (BP)
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