One of the best moments of the 2022 Major League Baseball regular season was when St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols joined the 700-home run club. But, according to the man himself, it almost never happened.
The 2022 season has been a tale of two halves for Pujols. The 42-year-old was slow out of the gates in his 22nd season. By the time the 2022 All-Star break rolled around, Pujols was batting .215 and had only sent six balls out of the park. Sitting 15 home runs from reaching the 700 mark, Pujols admits he contemplated retirement.
“I did, I swear I did,” Pujols told John Denton of MLB.com. “There were some times when I (asked) myself that, many times.”
The doubt is understandable looking back. St. Louis entered the All-Star break with a 50-44 record and were coming off three-consecutive series losses. Pujols hadn’t been swinging a good bat and had become a rarely-used rotational player. Nevertheless, he decided to stick it out on his way to a magical second half.
First came the Home Run Derby, where Pujols turned back the clock on and put on a show in one of the best derby’s in recent memory. Then he returned to St. Louis after the break and went on a tear. Pujols hit 18 home runs in his final 41 games and helped lead the Cardinals to a National League Central title. Oh yeah, he hit his 700th home run along the way in one of the best moments of 2022.
The decision to finish out the season ended up being easy for the three-time MVP.
“When you have good people around you and they are encouraging you and you realize that God has opened so many doors for you, man, it puts things back into perspective,” Pujols told Denton. “I decided, ‘I’m going to stick with it!’ I knew sooner or later it was going to come and turn around for me, because it can’t be like it was all year long.”
Now, St. Louis will enter the postseason with some good juju on their side, hoping to win one more World Series under the guide of The Machine.
