A look back at Pujols' bats. Albert Pujols has remained true to form so far in 2005. He is favoring Sam Bats and Louisville Slugger bats, with a few X-bats and Old Hickory bats thrown in. He also appears to be using other players' bats, which he's been known to do since his rookie season.

During the last part of May, Albert was seen using an X-bat - with a black handle and natural barrel - with the name Victor Diaz on the barrel. (He started using the bat shortly after the Cards' visit to Diaz's home turf in New York. Pujols and Diaz both hail from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, so one can assume there was a swap of bats between two old friends.)

Albert also used an Old Hickory with a blackened knob and a silver "5" written over it - likely another borrowed bat. And he swung a Louisville Slugger M9 with a blackened-out number on the knob, which also might be someone else's stick. Plus, I've heard from two sources that at least some of the black Sam Bats used by Pujols recently belong to Yadier Molina.

Since he was a rookie, I have seen or read about Pujols using bats from the following players: Mike Piazza, Adam Dunn, Tino Martinez, Bernard Gilkey, Edgar Renteria and Hector Luna. Fellow Pujols collector Rob Steinmetz says he's also seen bats from Sammy Sosa, Manny Ramirez, Mike Sweeney and Benito Santiago, all showing use with Albert's #5 on the knob. At this moment, there's a Pat Burrell black Sam Bat on sale at the Cardinals Team Store that was used by Albert (I was dubious since Burrell also wears #5, but the clubhouse guys are confident it was used by Albert).

The Piazza note is especially interesting since Mike favors Mizuno bats, but Albert swears he's never used a Mizuno. The only photo I have of Pujols wielding a Mizuno is from his first spring training, and the bat is a Ray Lankford model. But, it is possible that Pujols may have used a Piazza Mizuno during his rookie year.

This passage is from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 5/23/01: "(Andy) Benes could only comply when Albert Pujols asked him for a bat before Tuesday's game. It seems that a starting pitcher (perhaps Darryl Kile) had broken one of Pujols' bats in batting practice last week. The hot-hitting Pujols had been using a Mike Piazza bat. The pitchers found two Piazza bats and the one that wound up being snapped in half was Pujols' 'game bat.' Pujols broke several of his own model bats after his Piazza 'gamer' was broken."

That's the closest thing I have to proof that Albert ever used a Mizuno. Whatever happened in early 2001, though, is ancient history. Albert says he doesn't use Mizuno - I've heard that from more than one collector who has asked him to sign a purported "gamer" - and there's nothing to suggest Albert's lying.

I'm often asked about which Pujols bats are most desirable and which ones to avoid. I would steer clear of Mizuno, X-bats with a flag on the handle, Rawlings after 2001 and any of the "small time" labels.

The best Pujols bats are his personal Louisville Slugger models and Sam Bat models. Legitimate X-bats (sans flag) and Old Hickory bats used by Albert exist, but it seems you see more for sale than he actually could have used. If you are offered one, make sure it's from a foolproof source.

Down the stretch: A 2005 addendum

In August, a new batch of bats appeared at the Cardinals retail outlets. Four black Sam bats belonging to other players (Yadier Molina and Raul Gonzalez) had "5" on the knobs and LOAs attributing use to Pujols. That confirms earlier suspicions that Albert was using Yadi's black Sam bats in 2005.

On September 17, Albert used a natural BWP model. In a later game, he used a two-tone BWP for one appearance and snapped it in two pieces. On September 20 in Cincinnati, he was using a black LS maple bat that appeared to have the "Select Maple" label and both ends colored in silver. Then in Milwaukee, he was using a black ash LS contract model with "5" on the knob. I was told by a Cardinals source that the maple bat was an Adam Dunn model and the ash bat was a Geoff Jenkins model. On September 28, Albert broke out another new bat -- a black-handled, Galen barreled Easton bat. He used it twice and apparently cracked it. The final weekend, Albert again was using the Dunn bat, but a #5 sticker had been added to the knob. He used that bat to hit career home run number 200.