Baseball player Albert Pujols breaks home run record

Albert Pujols’s 700th career home run on September 23, 2022, placed him alone in fourth on baseball’s all-time list. The St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter connected against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, capping a 22-year climb that few players have matched. The moment arrived in the final weeks of a season already circled as his last, turning a routine road game into an instant historical marker.

Numbers that matter

Pujols finished with 703 home runs, three more than the night he passed Alex Rodriguez. He needed only four additional swings after number 700 to reach the final total before retirement. Those last three blasts did not alter his place in history, but they completed the record in the cleanest way possible.

The 700th itself traveled an estimated 375 feet into left-center, a line drive that cleared the wall without theatrics. Official scorers ruled it a home run within seconds, and the game paused while teammates mobbed him at home plate. The Dodgers’ crowd, rarely generous to visiting stars, gave him a standing ovation.

Every home run after 696 moved Pujols past Rodriguez’s career mark. Rodriguez had held fourth place since 2016, and the handoff from one modern-era slugger to another drew quiet nods from analysts who remembered both careers in real time.

Place on the ledger

Only three players sit above Pujols: Barry Bonds at 762, Hank Aaron at 755, and Babe Ruth at 714. Bonds broke Aaron’s record in 2007, and the number has stood untouched since. Pujols never suggested he would chase Bonds, and the 62-home-run gap confirmed that judgment.

Aaron’s 715th home run in 1974 remains the most culturally freighted swing in the sport’s record book. Ruth’s 714 stood as the benchmark for four decades before Aaron arrived. Pujols joined that conversation without fanfare, accepting his spot as a statistical neighbor rather than a claimant to first place.

The gap between 700 and 714 is now measured in single digits, yet the calendar prevents any further movement. Retirement closed the case on additional counting stats and left the top three untouched.

Timeline of the night

Pujols entered the game at 699. The first-inning fly out drew the usual respectful applause. In the fourth, a hanging slider produced the record swing and an immediate on-field celebration that lasted nearly four minutes.

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol removed Pujols after the sixth inning, allowing the 42-year-old to salute the crowd once more. The game resumed with the numerical milestone secured and the personal farewell still ahead.

Postgame interviews stayed short. Pujols thanked teammates, staff, and family, then repeated that the number mattered less than the daily work required to reach it. No elaborate victory lap followed; the team bus left Dodger Stadium on schedule.

Career in two decades

Pujols debuted in 2001 and posted double-digit home run totals in every season until 2022. Eleven All-Star selections, three MVP awards, and two World Series rings formed the public ledger long before the 700th arrived. The home run count simply capped an already crowded résumé.

St. Louis remained the only franchise on his regular-season résumé until a brief stop with the Angels and a return in 2022. The second Cardinals stint produced 44 home runs across two seasons and gave Pujols the platform to finish where he started.

Advanced metrics place him among the most durable everyday players of his generation. He appeared in 150 or more games twelve times, a workload that contributed directly to the counting totals now etched in the record book.

Media and fan reaction

National broadcasts cut to the at-bat live, and the highlight looped through the usual sports channels within minutes. Local coverage in both St. Louis and Los Angeles framed the event as a capstone rather than a competition. Social clips focused on the on-field hug between Pujols and catcher Yadier Molina, his longtime teammate.

Former players on the broadcast noted that 700 had once seemed unreachable for anyone not named Bonds or Aaron. The tone stayed factual; no one suggested the record altered ongoing debates about PED-era statistics. The number simply existed on the page.

Ticket resale markets showed modest spikes for the remaining home games, yet demand stayed within normal late-season ranges. Fans treated the milestone as confirmation of a career already widely appreciated rather than a sudden surge of new interest.

Financial and market layer

Collectible card prices for Pujols rookies ticked upward in the days after the home run, though analysts described the movement as temporary. Game-used memorabilia from the 700th at-bat entered auction pipelines within forty-eight hours, with proceeds earmarked for Pujols’s charitable foundation.

Cardinals sponsorship activations leaned on the milestone for one week of in-stadium promotions, then returned to standard end-of-season messaging. No new national endorsement deals surfaced; Pujols had already transitioned into brand work centered on community and education rather than performance.

MLB’s digital arm reported above-average streaming numbers for the Dodgers-Cardinals broadcast, concentrated in the middle innings around the record swing. The bump lasted one game and did not carry into subsequent national windows.

Context with Rodriguez

Alex Rodriguez finished at 696 after a 22-year career that included its own share of public peaks and valleys. Pujols passed him without comment on any personal rivalry, and Rodriguez posted a brief congratulatory note on social media that stayed within conventional bounds.

Both players reached their totals in an era of increased scrutiny on conditioning, nutrition, and workload management. The statistical neighborhood they now share reflects longevity as much as raw power.

Rodriguez’s place on the list remains secure; no active player sits within realistic range of 696. The handoff from one former MVP to another marked a quiet transfer rather than a contested claim.

What the number represents

Seven hundred home runs functions as a shorthand for sustained excellence across two full pitching eras. Pitchers throw harder, defenses shift more, and analytics shape lineups more rigidly than in Ruth’s day, yet the counting total still registers as rare.

Pujols never framed the chase as a personal crusade. He spoke instead about daily preparation and the support staff that kept his body on the field. The record emerged from that routine rather than from any late-career surge narrative.

Future generations will see the number listed between Rodriguez and Ruth. Its position on the page will remain fixed; its meaning will depend on how historians weigh the conditions under which it was compiled.

Season’s end and exit

Pujols announced his retirement before the 700th home run, removing any suspense about future attempts. The Cardinals staged a series of pregame tributes in St. Louis that focused on his first tenure with the club and his charitable work off the field.

The final weekend series drew sellout crowds and extended on-field ceremonies, yet the tone stayed measured. No manufactured drama accompanied the walk-off; the record had already been set, and the retirement stood as a separate, scheduled conclusion.

Teammates described Pujols as unchanged by the milestone. He continued to take early batting practice, study video, and offer quiet instruction to younger players until the last out of the season.

Record now fixed

The 700-home-run mark closes a measurable chapter in baseball’s statistical record and leaves the top three untouched. Pujols’s achievement sits as a benchmark for longevity and consistency rather than an active target for the current generation. Future players will measure themselves against the conditions of their own era, not against a number that no longer moves.