When 42-year-old St. Louis Cardinal’s first baseman Albert Pujols announced his retirement, he gave all the glory to God for a historic career. Pujols finishes his career with 703 homeruns, one of the top homerun hitters. He also surpassed Babe Ruth’s RBI record.
“All the glory goes to the Lord, not just me,” he shared with a reporter after his last game. “He opened the door for me to come here. All I did, even through my struggles, was just stay faithful and strong and continue to trust my process that it might work out. I waited for my opportunity.
Pujols shared his own testimony in an I am Second video in 2013 who put the first base star’s story like this, “Drafted 402nd in the thirteenth round by the St. Louis Cardinals, he doubted whether baseball would even be in his future. People said he wouldn’t make it, that he would end his career in the minors. But after only a year in the farm leagues, Albert embarked on a storied career with the St. Louis Cardinals. The nine-time MLB All-Star became the only player in history to produce 30 homeruns and 100 RBIs each year for the first ten years of his career and was elected Player of the Year three times.”
Pujols shared that it was his wife, Deidre, who introduced him to Christ and began making a regular attendance at church together. The two started a foundation together and were active in charitable work, with Pujols explaining what he did off the field was of greater importance.
“I’ve been asked a lot of questions over the past few days regarding what’s been going on at home and sadly, after 22 years of marriage, I have made the decision to file for divorce from my wife, Deidre. I realize this is not the most opportune time with Opening Day approaching and other family events that have recently taken place. These situations are never easy and isn’t something that just happened overnight. As a devout Christian, this is an outcome that I never wanted to see happen. For many long days and nights, I prayed, asking the Lord for His guidance. I am thankful for the five beautiful children that we brought into this world and remain committed to raising them in a loving and safe environment. I ask that you please respect our privacy and the privacy of our five children during this time.”
“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 MLB.com. “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.”
As this season of life comes to an end for Pujols, he goes out with 703 career home runs and passed Ruth to become No. 2 on the all-time RBI list with 2,218.
“It did hit me really hard, because I had felt that weight to deliver for everyone,” Pujols told MLB.com. “God has given me this talent and the joy for the game, and I was emotional because there were so many people supporting me and pushing me. They are people who love me and have always supported my career, and I wanted to do it for them. I don’t want to say ‘pressure’ because that word sounds brutal — and I really wanted to do it for them.”
Albert final interview pic.twitter.com/Ljed9PqAaE
— Frank Cusumano (@Frank_Cusumano) October 9, 2022
