I was unaware of this little nugget of information that I picked up today from the great Cardinals beat writer, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. After a head-turning spring training of 2001, Albert Pujols was on the brink of making the Major League squad.
So Albert almost ended up wearing #32 instead of his now familiar #5. What I found most interesting about this fact was its connection (at least in my thoughts) to my son, Jack. Jack was born in late 1999, so he literally does not remember a time before Albert took the field for the Cardinals. Living in St. Louis with a baseball-crazy dad, Jack quickly became a very big baseball fan in general and a very big Cardinals fan in particular. Albert Pujols was (of course) a favorite of his.
In fact, the very first MLB game that Jack ever attended was May 29, 2003. A friend had given us row one field box seats just past the Cardinals' dugout, and it just happened to be Albert Pujols Bat Night. To make things even more amazing, Albert even signed Jack's bat before the game! Jack hadn't even seen one pitch of MLB action, and he basically had no hope of ever having a better experience at the ballpark!
The summer of 2006, we moved from St. Louis to Michigan. Jack was about to enter first grade, and was extremely upset when we told him that we were moving. Ini fact, the only way that we were able to console him was by telling him that Detroit was only an hour away, and we promised that we'd take him there for baseball games, especially when our Cardinals came to town.
You may recall that this was the very season that the Cardinals met the Tigers in the World Series. Unfortunately we were unable to get tickets to Series games, but even so, ours was the only happy household in our neighborhood when the Cardinals finished off the Tigers in five games. We had already put Jack to bed on October 27th, but I made sure to wake him up for the bottom of the ninth so he could see his team win it all. You can imagine how all his new friends felt when he showed up at school for Halloween just days later dressed as Albert Pujols!
In spite of the fact that we lived in Tigers country, Jack has remained a Cardinals fan (and a Pujols fan!) all these years. Growing up, the walls of his room were filled with baseball pictures, pennants and plaques. They had a decided Cardinals emphasis to them, and even more specifically an Albert Pujols emphasis. And throughout Little League and travel baseball, Jack always wore #5 and played first base.
Here's why I found that nugget from Derrick Goold interesting though: When Jack was in high school, while he was still a first baseman, he didn't get to choose his number. What number do you think he was assigned? You guessed it...32. The very same number that Albert almost was assigned all those years ago!
