Albert Pujols

My hero may be one of the best first basemen ever. Based on his stats so far, he is the most consistent first baseman ever in baseball. My hero wears number 5 for the St. Louis Cardinals. He is first baseman Albert Pujols. He is a great inspiration to many kids in America. Albert Pujols was chosen as the person people think of as a hero because in spite of all of his great feats on the baseball field, he is raising awareness about Down’s syndrome and is also a leader in the fight against Down's syndrome.

Albert started his career in 2001 by winning rookie of the year. He had an unbelievable rookie season with 37 home runs, 130 runs batted in, a .329 average and 112 runs scored. Those stats helped secure him rookie of the year. The rookie of the year honor was surprising to many fans because not many knew a lot about him. In 2002 he continued his great start to his career by putting together another solid year. He hit 34 home runs, had a .314 batting average and drove in 127 runs.

Albert entered the 2003 season looking to improve his numbers and show all of baseball that he is one of the elite players on the field. With some hard practice, he was able to pull out another exceptional season with the Cardinals. He won his first ever batting title with a .359 average. That year he hit 43 home runs and had 124 runs batted in. In addition, he had a career high in doubles in a season with 51. He had another career high that year with 151 hits and last but not least he had 137 runs scored. That’s what helped him prove to be a batting champion and it proved to all the major league players that he was an elite player after 3 solid years of power.

Then Cardinals fans began looking to Albert Pujols to see if he could help lead them to the playoffs and to improve his numbers yet again. So fans were looking forward to the 2004 season in which he stepped up his home runs. That season he hit 46 home runs. To go along with that he had 123 runs batted in. His batting average didn’t make it back to .359 like last year but it still was another good solid average at .331 that year. His runs continued to be high as he had 133 runs scored that year. With those numbers he did help the Cardinals make it to the post season. They won in the playoffs and ultimately made it to the World Series where they came away disappointed after being swept by the Boston Red Sox. It made for a disappointing season after defeating the Houston Astros in post league play. People were really mad when the Cardinals got swept in the World Series because they were excited that we got there but then we lost 4 straight games.

So the Cardinal fans looked forward to the 2005 season. They looked for Pujols and the Cardinals to repeat and make it to the World Series again but they were beaten by the Houston Astros. Pujols’ hard work that season continued. Albert’s stats in 2005 were solid yet again. This year he posted 41 homeruns that made for another 100+ runs batted in season. He also had another 100+ runs scored season. Then the good numbers were carried over into 2006. He hit 49 homeruns the most ever for him and the most runs batted in in ever for him with 137. He also continued his over 100 runs a year with 119. Then came this year, the 2007 season where he had a slump to start and never really got going for a long period of time so he finished the season out with only 99 runs, 32 homeruns, and 103 runs batted in. His average was still good: .327. Over all it was another good year but a lot of people expected a lot more from him since last year he did so well.

Even with all of those wonderful baseball successes, Albert Pujols has taken a special interest in the fight against Down’s syndrome. He has helped to raise awareness of Down’s syndrome. Along with that, he contributes to many organizations to help the fight against Down‘s Syndrome. Albert now has his own organization which helps benefit those with Down’s syndrome including his daughter who was diagnosed with it. This is a great thing that he is doing. I hope it continues. A hero is someone who cares about others and tries to inspire others to do the right thing and guide them. Albert is proving how much he cares by trying to help those with Down’s syndrome through raising awareness and money. Caring is an important part of being a hero. Albert is also inspiring others to be the best they can be. He is always looking for ways to improve. His career stats from his rookie year until now show that he is always looking for ways to improve himself even with all of the achievements and awards he has earned. Because of his successes in baseball, people respect Albert Pujols. This makes Albert a great representative to help people become more aware of Down’s syndrome and get people to support Down’s syndrome research. Albert Pujols is a hero because he is a great baseball player who is using his fame to help others with Down’s Syndrome. He is a hero on and off the field.