Albert Pujols
Albert Pujols
José Alberto Pujols Alcántara, better known as Albert Pujols, is a Dominican American professional baseball first baseman for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Major League Baseball. He previously played for the St. Louis Cardinals, where he received three National LeagueMVP awardsand was a nine-time MLB All-Star. He was also an All-Star with the Angels in 2015...
NationalityDominican
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth16 January 1980
CitySanto Domingo, Dominican Republic
CountryDominica
Do I want to be in St. Louis forever? Of course. People from other teams want to play in St. Louis, and they're jealous that we're in St. Louis because the fans are unbelievable. So why would you want to leave a place like St. Louis to go somewhere else and make $3 million or $4 more million a year? It's not about the money.
If I need to help my team and play a different position for that game because somebody is hurt or they want to give a day off to somebody, I'll do it.
People from other teams want to play in St. Louis and they're jealous that we're in St. Louis because the fans are unbelievable. So why would you want to leave a place like St. Louis to go somewhere else and make $3 or $4 more million a year? It's not about the money. I already got my money. It's about winning and that's it. It's about accomplishing my goal and my goal is to try to win. If this organization shifts the other way then I have to go the other way.
I never take things for granted. I always look to help out me teammates, to win and be better.
I'm a teammate guy, so whatever I can do to help my team to win like I have the past two years, that's what I want to do. If it takes for me to play first base, third base, right field, I just want to win the game.
It's great to have my name with those guys, the superstars, great players, All-Stars. But my job is to help my team to win and that's what I did.
A lot of the fans and even the players miss Barry, ... I wish he would've been healthy and played, but I don't think about (his absence). I don't think about the past. I think about the present and the future and just try to stay healthy during the year, hopefully, and help my team to win like I did.
Hopefully everybody starts swinging the bats better. Our bats are not where we want them right now. Half of the team is not hitting that good, but we're finding ways to win some games -- and that's the most important thing.
You don't play to win the division, you play to win championship rings. How many division titles does this team have? ... We don't care about that. It doesn't matter what record we have. Last year we had the best record in the majors and we lost in the World Series.
Who cares about my home run? I knew you were going to come to that. That's not what you play for. Home runs never mean more than a win. It would have been great if I would have hit it and we would have won. It was just another home run for me. It wasn't enough to help my team win.
I know they're going through a tough time. It's terrible to see a great player like that going down, but that's going to happen in your career.
I know the talent that he's got, and it's about time for him to start swinging the bat, because he has some opportunity. I think he has done a great job for us the last couple years we've had him. When we've put him out there to play defense, pinch-run or pinch-hit, anything, he's always done a great job for us.
I'm just taking advantage of what they're giving me. I don't try to do too much. I just try to get on base. Scott and Jimmy (Edmonds) are swinging the bat pretty well right now. I try to get on base so I can score as much as I can.
St. Louis still is going to be a special place for me, whether I'm playing 3,000 miles away or 5,000 miles away.