In the hours after Albert Pujols hit his 500th career homer, his cellphone kept buzzing early into Wednesday morning.

There were texts and calls from the likes of fellow players David Ortiz and Derek Jeter. And there was a conversation with his first manager in the big leagues, Tony La Russa.

"I talked to Tony last night for 25 minutes," Pujols said before his Los Angeles Angels played the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night. "He kept mentioning 2001, Day 1, when I was making the ballclub and all that."

Pujols connected twice off Taylor Jordan on Tuesday in the Angels' 7-2 victory at Washington, becoming the 26th player with 500 homers in the majors.

"Being No 26, it says everything," he said. "I mean look at all the great players that have put a big league uniform, and some of them were really close to getting to 500. But that's a huge number."

- AP

(China Daily 04/25/2014 page24)