3,000 and beyond: 5 special hits from Pujols' Hall of Fame career

Let's be clear: There's nothing particularly special about the number 3,000. In fact, it's almost poetic that 3,000 came and went so quickly over the span of four innings Friday night.

For all the signs that were made and t-shirts that will be worn proclaiming Albert Pujols the newest member of the 3000-hit club, his milestone-reaching single was really no different than his next hit that same night - No. 3,001 - or his 3,002nd base knock he'll inevitably collect in the coming days.

What is mesmerizing, though, is the ability milestones like this have to cause us to pause and reflect. While that particular single on Friday night won't make Pujols a Hall of Famer on its own, it does force all of baseball to realize in unison that we are watching the sunset on a miraculous career worthy of Cooperstown.

When Pujols gets his plaque, it will mention that he became the 32nd player in MLB history to collect 3,000 hits, but it will be the highlights associated with those hits that live forever in the minds of St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Angels fans. Let's take a moment to reflect on the career of one of the greatest hitters to ever play the game of baseball:

No. 1

Let's go all the way back to Opening Day 2001. In Pujols' first game as a 21-year-old, the left fielder knocked a single up the middle off Mike Hampton, barely out of the reach of a diving Neifi Perez in the seventh inning.

Due to the uncertainty about his age, many teams chose not to recruit the young Dominican Republic native. The Cardinals drafted Pujols in the 13th round and offered him $10,000 to sign with the club, which the slugger rejected. St. Louis blinked first, increased its offer by six-fold, and Pujols agreed to a $60,000 bonus.

He would go on to collect 193 more hits that season, win rookie of the year unanimously, and place fourth in NL MVP voting, splitting time between the corner outfield and corner infield positions.

No. 3

While it didn't take long for Pujols to collect the first hit of his career, a pair of hitless games followed before he demolished his first home run.

Perhaps the best part of his first homer is the call from the commentators. Pujols' effortless swing and raw power provided all the necessary hype, and Thom Brennaman made no attempt to overshadow the moment with cliches of his own, simply going with a call which can be applied to many of Pujols' 620 regular-season bombs: "That ball hammered and we have a tie game."

Brennaman concludes with, "After watching this kid in batting practice, and that swing right there, it will not be nearly the last."

No. 182

We couldn't keep counting by twos or we'd be here all day. And eventually, one of these highlights won't be from his incredible 2001 campaign.

The 36th homer of Pujols' rookie season - and second of that particular game - was a grand slam that scored Miguel Cairo, Placido Polanco, and J.D. Drew, and gave the team a 9-5 lead in the top of the ninth.

No. 2,073*

They don't technically count toward 3,000 since they came in the postseason, but any retrospective on Pujols' career which doesn't mention his 2011 playoffs is incomplete. Even further, these are three hits, but given that they "don't count," we took some artistic license to include Pujols' most monumental mashing.

So, hit 2,073 is technically the last hit he recorded during the 2011 regular season - an RBI single in the first inning of the final game and pivotal 90th win which helped lift the Cards above the Atlanta Braves and into the wild-card spot. And while that was certainly a meaningful hit, collecting three home runs in a single World Series game tops it.

Pujols almost single-handedly took down the Texas Rangers in Game 3, going 5-for-6 with six RBIs. The Cardinals would go on to famously overcome a 3-2 series deficit and win the World Series, coming back from potential elimination in Game 6, during which they were down to their last strike on two separate occasions.

These would also be the last games Pujols played in a Cardinals uniform.

No. 2,876

When Pujols hit free agency, he was just leaving the peak of his powers. His 2011 season with St. Louis marked the first time in four seasons the slugger didn't finish inside the top two of MVP voting, and only the second time in seven years.

What followed Pujols' 10-year, $254-million contract with the Angels was a much more precipitous decline than was expected. Now, long gone are the days he enters the season as the MVP favorite; a fact some fans might need to be reminded of.

However, Pujols has still produced some magical moments while playing his decline years on the same roster as Mike Trout, who he's passed the MVP-favorite torch to. In particular, his 2,876th hit, or, as it's more commonly known, his 600th home run.

Perhaps the best thing about Pujols' 600th home run is how much it resembles his first. Both right-handed starters knew they made a mistake, both shots are high fly balls to the pull side, and, despite the pitch location being drastically different, Pujols' stroke is eerily identical. He really is The Machine.