Albert Pujols joins elite club

On Thursday, the St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols (above) drove in his 100th run, becoming only the third player in history to reach that milestone in each of his first eight seasons. Ted Williams did it in his first eight seasons and the champion Al Simmons (below) did it in his first eleven seasons.

Al Simmons’s career .334 batting average made mincemeat of critics who believed that he would never be able to hit good pitching with his peculiar penchant for striding toward third base when he swung rather than toward the mound. The unorthodox batting style caused him to be tagged “Bucketfoot Al.”

Born Aloys Szymanski (1902-1956) in a Polish section of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Simmons never wanted to be anything but a baseball player. In 1922, he signed his first professional contract with the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association. When Al hit .398 for Milwaukee in a 24-game trial at the end of the 1923 campaign, the Brewers found themselves with a hot property on their hands and were able to sell him to the Philadelphia Athletics for around $50,000.

In 1924, his rookie year with the A’s, Simmons batted .308 and knocked home 102 runs. The following year, he collected a league-leading 253 hits and hiked his average to .384. Moreover, he became the first player in American League history to drive in 100 or more runs in each of his first two seasons in the majors. He went on to accomplish this feat of driving in 100 or more runs in his first 11 seasons.

Not only an outstanding hitter, he was also an able outfielder with a strong throwing arm. The addition of Ty Cobb in 1927 helped Al to develop even further as a hitter. Like Harry Heilmann, another great right-handed hitter during the 1920s, Simmons found it remarkably easy to befriend the much shunned Cobb. In his single-minded dedication to becoming the best player he possibly could be, Simmons himself acquired the reputation for not being overly personable.