[外電] Notes: Busy offseason for Pujols
http://tinyurl.com/2jy8fr
02/14/2007 4:08 PM ET
Notes: Busy offseason for Pujols
Cards slugger made humanitarian trip, became U.S. citizen
By Matthew Leach / MLB.com
JUPITER, Fla. -- Albert Pujols has been fielding congratulations from
teammates and coaches since he arrived at Cardinals camp last week, but it
has nothing to do with his first Gold Glove or winning a World Series ring.
Pujols' most recent accomplishment was of another sort entirely: he became a
United States citizen last week.
Pujols addressed reporters on Wednesday for the first time since he was
naturalized as a citizen of his adopted home, and he said the ceremony was a
special day indeed.
"The U.S. opened the door for me and for my family," said Pujols, who was
born in the Dominican Republic. "First of all, my residence expired, so I had
to do it. And then the other thing is I want to help some of my family, my
mom, to come here, and that's the only way I could do it. It was awesome. It
was a lot of hard work, but I came through."
It was probably Pujols' most eventful offseason since he's been in baseball.
In addition to the honors and demands that come with being a world champion,
as well as the citizenship ceremony, he made a humanitarian trip to the
Dominican in January. With a crew of doctors in tow, the traveling party
provided medical care and education for about 1,000 Dominican children.
"We saw some bad things," Pujols said, "but it was a great experience. It was
awesome. When you close your eyes and think about it, you want to cry about
it. But at the same time, you're also excited and happy and blessed that you
get to do that."
The trip was one of the biggest endeavors yet by the Pujols Family
Foundation, which the slugger established in order to help children in the
United States as well as the Dominican. He's hoping to be able to return on a
regular basis.
"I want to go so bad, if I could do it every month, I'd do it, because that's
the way it is," he said. "Not just there. Through my foundation, my goal is
to spend everywhere, not just in the Dominican Republic, but in Latin America
and hopefully here in the United States like we've been doing."
Pujols, always an early arriver at Spring Training, has been in Florida since
Friday. For the first few days, he worked out at a nearby high school with
his friend and trainer, Chris Mihlfeld. On Wednesday, he worked out at Roger
Dean Stadium, while also getting in some quality time with son A.J.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 211.76.86.238
※ 編輯: bluedrc 來自: 211.76.86.238 (02/16 21:54)
AlbertPujols 近期熱門文章
PTT體育區 即時熱門文章