Scott Carson

Stats man Scott Carson is now in his 18th season as "third man in the booth" during Blue Jays telecasts.

Albert Pujols.

The opportunity to watch the great Albert Pujols perform up close and personal is something special.

If you haven’t seen the ESPN commercial where a couple of Chris Berman’s spawns trade quips with St. Louis Cardinals All-World first baseman Albert Pujols, then the title of this column won’t make sense. But clearly there is a thought around the game that Pujols is some kind of hitting machine, almost cyborg in nature.

Like the original ‘Terminator’, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, he is without outward emotion, and goes about his business not looking for any adulation.

Quite frankly, this is only about the third time (series) that I’ve seen him play and really pay attention to him and his craft. Like most of you, I’ve only really seen him in the nightly highlights. Clearly, he’s one of the elite players of this or any generation. Over the first two days of this final home interleague series of 2010, thanks to the ill-timed G20 Summit putting the entire lower downtown core of Toronto on lock-down, I’ve made time to pay attention when he’s in taking his b.p. hacks. It makes me wonder who the best player I’ve seen is.

In my 18 years in the booth, I’ve been paid to watch some of the greatest hitters. When I signed on for this back in 1993, I saw a 24-year old Ken Griffey Jr. blast a then career-high 45 home runs, and drive in over 100 runs for the Mariners. Not only could Junior hit but he also played athletic, Gold Glove centre field.

In late 1995, I witnessed the arrival of a skinny kid from Kalamazoo, Michigan to the Bronx, bringing with him a return to the glory years for the Yankees. His name is Derek Jeter. Right around that same time a quiet kid from the Dominican Republic by the name of Manny Ramirez, who learned the game on the sandlots near Yankee Stadium, arrived in Cleveland and revitalized a franchise. I watched the Hall of Fame career of Cal Ripken, Jr. wind down, performing into his 40s, all of his 21 years in an Orioles uniform. I also saw the arrival and subsequent sky-rocketing career of Alex Rodriguez.

I also saw the home runs fly off the bats of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Jose Canseco and Barry Bonds at record paces, allegedly aided by needles and/or pills. That’s all that really needs to be said about that crew. They had me fooled for a while.

But of them all, now that I’ve paid proper attention to him, Pujols is the complete package, both within the lines and outside of them. From the time he arrived in the Majors as a rookie, playing full-time, in 2001, his overall offensive numbers are top shelf. He also plays Gold Glove first base, is not a hot dog and shies away from the spotlights. Away from the ballpark, he’s never in the news for anything untoward. He’s never been linked to drug use and has never been photographed in a compromising situation. A model ball player that all the kids should watch and learn from.

I’m a numbers guy and when I sift through his stats, since he came on the scene, Pujols has the most doubles, RBI, runs and times on-base, and he’s second – by mere percentage points – in batting average and home runs. That’s good enough for me. And at age 30, in the prime of his career, those numbers will continue to go up and up.

WAITING TO EXHALE

After the Blue Jays get through this weekend in Philadelphia, they will have played 24 straight games against teams above .500, and faced some of the top starters in the game today: Matt Garza, David Price, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, Ubaldo Jimenez, Jason Hammel, Barry Zito, Matt Cain, Jaime Garcia, Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels.

While most were expecting this stretch to finally bring the Jays to their collective knees, they have more than held their own at 8-12 with four games remaining in this run. And they have only dropped 3.5 games in the standings and are still within 4.5 of the front-running Rays and Red Sox in the Wild Card race.

Over the next 29 games beginning Monday, they’ll face the Indians, Orioles and Royals in 16 of those games leading up to the trade deadline. That’s enough of a breather to stay within shouting distance of the contenders.

Who would have predicted that at the start of the season?