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Albert Pujols Was Not Happy About A Teammate Hitting Him in The Elbow

Yeah, it’s been frustrating to be Albert Pujols this year. You’re under pressure to perform for a new team and live up to your huge new contract, and you’re not doing it. You finally hit a home run, but… it’s one home run. Josh Hamilton hit four of those the other night. It’s not just that you’re not hitting (and you are really, really not hitting, with your .198 batting average and .286 slugging percentage), you’re not even making up for it by getting on base in other ways (.235 on-base percentage, on pace for 30 walks all season).

But hey, maybe things are starting to turn. You did hit that homer. You’re still on pace for around 40 doubles (small consolation, but hey, it’s something), and you had a solid game last night, going 2-for-5 and driving in two runs in a 6-2 win over the Twins. Maybe the Albert of old really is returning. You’ve finally got some reasons to feel good. You, uh, are feeling good, right?

OK, maybe not.

There could be any number of factors at play here. For one, the elbow on which Pujols was apparently hit has given him some trouble in the past, so he could be worried about injury. Maybe it just hurt. Maybe getting hit in the elbow is just something that sets Pujols off for whatever reason (don’t act like you don’t have similar triggers that might not make sense to anyone else). Also, while Pujols is many things, “most charming guy in the world” isn’t generally thought to be one of them.

Still, none of that is enough to prepare you for the weirdness of seeing one of baseball’s greats fling his glove at his own teammate in an apparent rage in the handshake line after a win. We can try to explain it all we like, but the fact remains: we’ve never seen anything exactly like this in a major league game. And we may never again, because after that display, no Angel is going near Pujols’ elbow

[Midwest Sports Fans via The Big Lead]