Pujols Joins Elite Company

Tonight Albert Pujols launched his 30th homerun catapulting him into elite company.   He became the seventh player in Major League Baseball history to hit 30 homeruns before the end of June, by hitting his 29^th and 30^th long balls against the San Francisco Giants.  This marked the 32^nd time a player has hit 30 homeruns before the All-Star Break.

The last player to do this was Alex Rodriguez who hit exactly 30 in 2007.  According to the Elias Sports Bureau this is the 10^th time a player has hit that amount of homeruns before July 1, and the first time since 2001 when Barry Bonds and Luis Gonzalez accomplished the feat.

With these last two homeruns, he has now hit 14 in the month of June tying a career best, 14 in April of 2006.  He also set a new personal best of 35 RBI’s in a month, beating his previous best of 33 in May of 2006.

Find below a list of the previous hitters who have hit the magical mark of 30 before July, courtesy of mlb.com

Devon Teeple is an author for the Business of Sports Network, which includes the Biz of Baseball, the Biz of  Football, the Biz of Basketball and the Biz of Hockey.   He is a former professional baseball player with the River City Rascals & Gateway Grizzlies.  Devon is a former student within Sports Management Worldwide’s Baseball General Manager Class. Devon is the founder of The GM’s Perspective and is a intern with The Football Outsiders and contributor with the Plymouth River Eels.

Currently, Devon is a Branch Manager at a financial institution in Southern Ontario Canada.  He can be reached at thegmsperspective@gmail.com or devon@businessofsportsnetwork.com