Latino Milestones in the U.S. and Japan

Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals and Alex Ramirez of the Yomiyuri Tokyo Giants both had big weeks in their respective leagues. Both players continued to assault the record books and will eventually leave their names notched near the top due to their accomplishments. Let's start with Pujols.

Albert Pujols
With his blast during the 4th inning of an 11-10 loss to the Washington Nationals on August 26th Albert Pujols joined the 400 homerun club. In doing so at the age of 30 years 222 days, Pujols became the third youngest player in the history of Major League Baseball to achieve the milestone trailing only Alex Rodriguez (29 years 316 days) and Ken Griffey Jr. (30 years 141 days). Even more amazing was that Pujols reached the 400 homerun mark during his 10th season while Rodriguez and Griffey Jr both reached the 400 homerun mark during their 12th season. for his career with the Cardinals, Pujols has a .332 batting average with 401 homers and 1207 RBI. Where the discussion used to be that it wasn't if Griffey and/or Rodriguez would reach and surpass Aaron (and now Bonds) but I think the discussion has turned towards Pujols and his assault on Baseball homerun record.

Alex Ramirez
With his three-run homer in the first inning of a 10-4 win over the Chunichi Dragons on August 26th, Alex Ramirez became the first player in the history of the Nippon Baseball League to record eight consecutive 100+ RBI seasons. In doing so, Ramirez passed Japanese Baseball legend Sadaharu Oh who achieved the prior mark of nine straight 100+ RBI seasons from 1963-1969. The homerun also gave Ramirez 40 homers in a season for the third time in his career in Japan. For his career in Japan, Ramirez has a .304 batting average with 329 Homers and 1088 RBI. (Photo Credit KYODO PHOTO)

Our Latino brothers are showing that they can dominate the game on opposite ends of the earth. Keep bashing and keep winning hermanos.

FH

For Further Reading
- Click Here for the MLB.com article on Albert Pujols hitting his 400th career homer by Matthew Leach
- Click Here to access Albert Pujols' career stats from Baseball-Reference.com
- Click Here to access the Japan Times article by Jason Coskrey telling of Alex Ramirez surpassing Sadaharu Oh consecutive 100+ RBI season record
- Click Here to access Alex Ramirez's career stats from the Nippon Baseball League website