Cardinals visit Roberto Clemente Museum

Derrick Goold, who covers the Cardinals for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, writes about his visit to the Roberto Clemente Museum. Goold visited the museum this past weekend along with Cards pitcher Ron Villone (who was involved in Sunday's scuffle). Read Goold's account on his Bird Land blog.

Goold also writes about Albert Pujols' visit to the Clemente Museum. Apparently, Pujols purchased a #21 cap for himself and his teammate Yadier Molina. Just like Roberto, both of these guys are class acts.

“He was just a great baseball player,” Pujols said recently. He is the Cardinals’ winner of the Roberto Clemente Award, and he is deserving of the major-league award that will be given out later this fall. ”Some (people say) we’re almost similar … we look like each other, and the things he did for his community. He was a Hall of Fame great player on the field and even better (person) of it. I wish I could have met him.”

Pujols was the 2007 winner of the Roberto Clemente Award.

"I was blessed," said Pujols, whose Pujols Family Foundation aids people in St. Louis, and who will make a third pilgrimage to the Dominican after the season to lend some of the country's poorer areas health care and education.

"We touched a lot of lives over there," Pujols said of his last sojourn. "The doctors, they were awesome. We saw a lot of kids, and a lot of kids, gave a lot of treatment to a lot of kids. It was exciting. It was exciting every day, from six o'clock to six o'clock working, just nonstop."

Just a reminder... be sure to vote for this year's Roberto Clemente Award winner.

I'm sorry to say that I've never visited the Clemente Museum but it seems like something that I need to do on my next trip to the Burgh. I did, however, see a great exhibit on Clemente this past winter at the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum which really highlighted Roberto the person rather than the player - it really put things in perspective.