Albert Pujols Made His 700 Home Run and It Will be His Final Season

In that tunnel, just a few steps from the Cardinals’ dugout, the earnest slugger who’s often said this season wished he could enjoy his journey to the Hall of Fame, finally let his guard down and give in to his feelings. The calm and cool displayed on the pitch turned into a calamity of emotions beneath the dugout. Pujols seemed overwhelmed by the importance of the moment, crouching down and yelling.

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol and also a close friend to Pujols, is the man who pushed to sign the slugger with a week left in Spring Training, glanced through the tunnel to see a crouched Pujols while putting his hands in his face. Marmol, who has known Pujols for more than 15 years and lives in a St. Louis-area house that belongs to the slugger, said seeing that sort of raw emotion from someone who has accomplished so much will be his lasting memory of the historic night.

“It was cool when he got away from everything and he went into that tunnel by himself and he was taking it all in; that’s probably the coolest part of it for me,” said Marmol, whose Cardinals’s magic number drop to four by beating the Dodgers 11-0.

“Him, by himself — with no cameras — I just sat there and watched him a little bit. I’m not sure what was exactly going through his head, but he was taking it all in. He was crouched down and his hands were in his face. It wasn’t a part of the show and everything that was going on [on the field]. It was him realizing all he had just accomplished, and it was pretty damn cool.”

Pujols, 42, has said this is the final season of his 22-year career, joined Barry Bonds (762 homers), Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714) as the only sluggers in AL/NL history to hit at least 700 long balls in his career. Pujols and Aaron are the only two with at least 3,000 hits and 700 home runs. Like Aaron, Pujols entered the 700 club without a 50-home run season.