Baseball

Pujols thrives by never being satisfied

Cardinals star focuses on the negative to avoid complacency

James A. Finley / AP

St. Louis Cardinals Albert Pujols screams in pain after fouling a ball off his shin during a game against the Mets on May 16.

Pujols would know. Though steroids suspicions and controversies have embroiled some of the game's biggest stars — including McGwire — Pujols spends time each offseason teaching hitting clinics at Mihlfeld's facility north of Kansas City in Pleasant Valley, Mo., and preaching the value of nutrition over chemicals. He is cautious with his body's intake.

Rather than hire a personal chef, Pujols asks Deidre to cook his meals. She researches on the Internet the best ways to feed her husband. "That's big with Albert," Mihlfeld says. "He wants to make kids understand there is a right way. There is a lot of temptation out there. He wants instruction based on nutrition and strength and conditioning."

Pujols' driven, gruff on-field persona — so intensely motivated by the negative — is odd because off the field he is a powerful force for the positive. He has established a reputation as a dangerous bidder at charity auctions; he writes checks for donated items, then gives the items away.

At a December charity auction, he bid $2,500 for the glove Roger Clemens wore during his 300th win, then gave the glove (along with a hug and a kiss) to Miki Cunningham, a teenager with Down syndrome.

At the St. Louis chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America auction in January, Pujols bid $5,000 for an autographed Chris Carpenter jersey, five times the second-highest bid, then passed the jersey along to the second-highest bidder.

In 2003, at an auction to benefit children with Down syndrome, he paid $3,000 each for two Florida vacation packages and gave them away to kids on the spot.

After signing a seven-year, $100 million contract in 2004, Pujols and Deidre established the Pujols Family Foundation. The organization originally was dedicated to Down syndrome — Pujols' stepdaughter, Isabella, has the condition — but, on a visit to the Dominican Republic, Deidre found the Orfanata de Ninos de Cristo (Orphanage of the Children of Christ) in La Romana, on the southeast coast of the Dominican. Deeply affected by the plight of kids in the orphanage, Deidre and Albert added another beneficiary to the foundation.

That's a side of Pujols few see. "When you see Albert around these kids, it is hard to believe he is the same person who everyone talks about being so serious at the park," says Todd Perry, the foundation's director. "He always has a big smile. He will get down and roll around on the ground with them. There are always high-fives and hugs for everyone. He is a big kid again.

"And with his own kids (in addition to Albert Jr. and Isabella, there's also 6 1⁄2-month-old Sophia), people don't see the dedication he has. He is a doting father. If you see him at his house, he always has one of them in his arms. He might be all business at the park, but he is much different away from it."

CONTINUED : Most impressive? The consistency

< Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next >