Pujols has accomplished a great deal with over 650 home runs, 3,000 hits and 2,000 RBIs, but he is not done yet. Although many Cardinal fans say Stan Musial is the best Cardinal of all time, Albert Pujols is has him beat. This is because Pujols has achieved higher career statistics, more accolades and has more class than any other Cardinal to walk on the field.

Pujols is one of two Cardinals with at least 3,000 career hit and 500 career home runs. He is also one of four players in MLB history with 2,000 or more RBIs in their career, all according to baseball-reference.com.

Pujols is definitely an elite of the elite. As of May 1, 2022, the man has 6,057 total bases. He currently is less than 100 total bases away from passing Willie Mays and Stan Musial for third and second-most total bases for a player in their career, respectively, all according to espn.com.

If you still believe Musial is better, then it is probably because most judge the statistics by the total for each team, not the player’s career. In several critical categories, including RBIs, home runs and at-bats, Pujols leads Musial because Pujols played only 10 seasons with the Cardinals, while Musial played his entire career with the Cardinals.

Now think about this, Albert Pujols has played one year less than Musial. It should be noted, Musial did not play for 15 months while he was serving in the Navy, according to mlb.com. Pujols has been plagued with numerous injuries that have repeatedly left him on the injured list, including in 2013, when Pujols missed 63 games, or nearly 40% of the season, due to having knee surgery in the previous offseason and a tear in the plantar fascia of his left foot, according to mlb.com. When that is taken into account, it is equivalent to a seasonless for Pujols compared to Musial.

Also, back in Musial’s time, they had only eight teams to compete against, as there was no interleague play between the National and American Leagues. In contrast, Pujols, who plays during a time of interleague play, has 30 teams to compete against, meaning that Musial would face the same pitcher much more frequently than Pujols would, according to mlb.com. In addition, pitchers nowadays do not go the complete game like they did in Musial’s time. This means that Pujols is facing relievers, too. That means more pitchers and pitch variants that Pujols has to account for when stepping into the box, which is impressive and adds to his best Cardinal tale.

Pujols is a star with 10 All-Star game appearances, six Silver Slugger awards, two Gold Gloves, two World Series titles, a Rookie of the Year award and three MVP awards. All of which, with the exception of an All-Star game appearance in 2015, was done while a redbird, talk about excellence, all according to mlb.com.

Over the years, Pujols has shown excellent character both on and off the field. He started his own foundation called the Pujols Family Foundation. The foundation helps children with Down syndrome be able to thrive in life and also helps the parents by educating them on Down syndrome, all according to pujolsfamilyfoundation.org.

Some argue that Musial holds nearly every offensive Cardinal record, making him the best Cardinal, but that is not true. Pujols is clearly the finest Cardinal to put on a Cardinal uniform.