Book Review--Pujols More Than The Game

PUJOLS More Than Just The Game

By Scott Lamb and

Tim Ellsworth

                                                        

There are some good baseball players and then there are some GOOD baseball players. This book is about a REALLY GOOD baseball player. It’s about a hero of a man who is REALLY GOOD for the game of baseball.

Albert Pujols was born in Santo Domingo, the capitol city of the Dominican Republic. By virtue of his birthplace, he had no other option but to grow up loving the game of baseball. What is a national pastime to us in America is an absolute obsession to the citizens of the Dominican Republic. His father was a painter by trade but an avid baseball player the rest of the time.

From the day he first tried out for the Fort Osage Senior High School baseball team until his present duties with the St. Louis Cardinals, Pujols' bat has spoken volumes for him. He was the first player in history to bat .300 with 30 home runs and 100 runs batted in for ten consecutive seasons. As of 2010 he has hit 408 home runs. This book is filled with hundreds of his dazzling exploits, especially those walk-off home runs. AND, he did it all without the use of steroids.

However, his exploits with  baseball bats almost pale in comparison to the homeruns he hits in his personal life. Albert is a devout Christian. His pulpit? Well, it’s first base, mostly. His question to the opposing player? He asks them do they know where they would go when they die. I do reckon that would be some kind of a conversation starter. Albert says that first base is where he does most of his witnessing.

However, the baseball diamond is not the only place that he lets Jesus shine. He and his wife Dee Dee formed the Pujols Family Foundation. Its main purpose would be to support the Down Syndrome Association of Greater St. Louis and Orfanato Ninos de Christo in the Dominican Republic.

In his off season, the Pujols and their PFF team head for his home country of the Dominican Republic. With medical and dental teams in tow, they head straight to the slums and put their Jesus arms around those that are hurting. They supply items from eyeglasses to mattresses to people who do not have any other means to obtain them.

On and off the field, I saw a great and godly man in the things Albert Pujols did. I was greatly encouraged by reading this book. Booksneeze supplied me with a copy of this book in return for my honest review. And, honestly, it was not a hard review to write.