Behind the scenes work makes St. Louis' Albert Pujols MVP

Sports Columnist Bryan Burwell
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
http://www.stltoday.com/
11/18/2008

This was another of those plentiful public moments that have become a routine part of the careful construction of Albert Pujols' inevitable Hall of Fame career. A few hours earlier, he received a call informing him that he had won the second National League MVP award of his eight-year career, and he sat at home with the phone in his hand crying like a baby.

But late Monday afternoon, he stood before the hot lights in the crowded Busch Stadium pressroom. This was all too familiar territory for Pujols, cameras rolling, shutters clicking and the public witnessing it all as he once again explained what it felt like to be confirmed as the best baseball player in the National League.

Too often, we think these public moments of glory are the entire substance of the making of El Hombre's MVP greatness. The never-ending awards presentations; the thundering homer that crashed off the outfield window and silenced Minute Maid Park; that majestic blast that reached the third deck of the warehouse wall at Petco Park, or any number of signature moments when Pujols flipped his bat aside with such theatric impertinence and kept us awed and entertained.

We're always fooled when we see the truly great ones at work, largely because their heroics often obscure the hard work that goes into enhancing those superb natural gifts. If you want to know why Pujols has been voted the best player in the NL for the second time in his remarkable eight-year career, you need to be at his house in the offseason at the crack of dawn.

"Five days a week I'm in the gym," he said, "From 8 a.m. to around 11:30 every day, I'm in there lifting weights, I'm doing my cardio. I'm pushing myself hard all the time. And I want to do more, but Dr. (George) Paletta won't let me."

Five weeks after surgery on his damaged right elbow, the Cardinals slugger is aching to increase his workload. He's trying to find more ways to improve his metronome swing. He's trying to discover new routes to another level of fitness. He's carefully plotting new ways to turn the perfect baseball machine that he has become into something even more efficient than the past near decade of perfection that produced eight consecutive seasons with a .300 batting average, 30 or more home runs and 100 or more RBIs. But most of all, he's trying to strengthen his damaged right arm, which caused him intense pain all last season.

"I feel great now," he said as he smiled and flexed his right arm like a muscle man. "Look, I can flex it with no pain at all. I couldn't do that at all last season."

The progress, he says is coming so fast that it's causing him to get a little antsy and even a bit bored with his maniacal workout routine. He's getting a little bored with a weight-lifting routine that involves no upper body iron pumping. Pujols dreams of throwing up metal plates on bench presses, power lifts and heavy-duty arm curls.

"But every time I start thinking about it, I hear Dr. Paletta in my head telling me, 'Don't do it, don't do it,'" he joked.

There was never much doubt in my mind that Pujols would win this award, because as good as he has been since the day he walked into the majors, 2008 might have been his best year. Runner-up in the NL batting race (.357 average), 116 RBIs, 37 home runs, 104 walks, .462 on-base percentage, .653 slugging percentage and a staggering total of only 54 strikeouts in 633 plate appearances is just this side of ridiculous.



ST. LOUIS, MO - SEPTEMBER 25: (FILE PHOTO) Albert Pujols #5 of the St. Louis Cardinals rounds the bases after hitting a three-run home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Busch Stadium on September 25, 2008 in St. Louis, Missouri. It was announced that first baseman Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals won the 2008 National League's Most Valuable Player award (MVP) outplacing Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies November 17, 2008. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)


With all due respect to Philadelphia slugger and St. Louis native Ryan Howard, who finished second in the balloting and would have made a worthy winner if Pujols hadn't been around, this was the right choice by the Baseball Writers Association of America after several years of slighting Pujols.

What I love the most about watching him play is that it doesn't really matter what day you see him, what inning you see him. It could be May or July, April or August, in an October playoff game or in a batting cage during spring training, his swing and his effort are seamless and consistent.

This is that Jordanesque quality he shares with the man whose name is on the label of all his Nike athletic gear. Just like Michael Jordan, Pujols knows that no matter what day it is or what inning, this could be that moment when someone sees him for the first time.

And just like Jordan, Pujols always knows how to make a lasting impression.

But that greatness doesn't come easy. It's forged on those early mornings in the gym when no one, but his maniacal trainer or the team doctor who helped reconstruct his injured elbow put their heads together to make him better than before, like some new-age, indestructible baseball machine.

"What's funny is I got a text message from Dr. Paletta this afternoon when he found out that I won," said Pujols. "He said, 'Hey man, and that was done with a bad elbow. Now that it's fixed, who knows? Back-to-back MVPs?'"

Pujols stood there smiling and feverishly fidgeting his fingers like he was texting the doctor back.
"I told him, 'Yeah, I like that,'" said Pujols. —"'Back-to-back? Yeah, why not.'"