When Tommy John beat the Angels for his 268th victory in May 1987, the left-hander, then a 44-year-old with the New York Yankees, was asked if he had a burning desire to win 300 games.
From his childhood in the Dominican Republic to his high school and junior college years in Missouri, his 11-year reign as baseball's best right-handed hitter in St. Louis and his seven years in Anaheim, there have been no shortcuts on the path to baseball's Hall of Fame.
"The one thing that is very understated about Albert is the sense of how hard he actually works at hitting, the studying of the pitchers, the actual time he spends in the cage," said David Eckstein, the former Angels shortstop who was a teammate of Pujols in St.