Blue Jays have a friend in Pujols?

After a minor bit of controversy at the end of Sunday’s game against the Angels, there have been a couple reports of peer respect and advice from future Hall of Famer, Albert Pujols.

Competition can breed some of the worst behaviour in people, as an otherwise rational person can completely lose their marbles in the heat of the moment. In baseball, it’s common to see all kinds of chest-puffing between competitors, whether it’s a batter who doesn’t like an inside pitch, or the increasingly common gripe about being “shown up” in celebration.

Such was the case on Sunday when Marcus Stroman openly celebrated finishing off a complete game outing, and securing the Blue Jays’ 5th win of the season. It may have been a bit of the top, but for the struggling Blue Jays, it was a pretty significant victory.

As Stroman celebrated, several Angels’ players took exception to his behaviour, most notably, future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols. The replays showed Pujols on the edge of the dugout, letting Stroman know what he thought of his open display of joy.

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Whether or not that’s worth getting upset about is a topic for another day, but it was still worth noting as the two teams played again on Monday night, and these things can occasionally grow into a bigger deal.

Fortunately for the Blue Jays and Angels, it looks like the issue is in the rear view mirror. In fact, Pujols hasn’t just kept quiet about the situation, he’s been a model player for young MLB players, as reported by Arash Madani on Twitter.

Firstly, Madani reports that Pujols spoke with Devon Travis earlier in the series, and encouraged the young second baseman to keep his chin up, despite his frigid start to the 2017 campaign.

Check out the details in the tweet below:

This obviously took place before the Stroman incident, but it shows what kind of respect Pujols carries, and the class that he carries himself with. Despite the fact that the two play on opposing teams in the middle of a 4 game set, Pujols didn’t let that stand in the way of encouraging a struggling youngster, especially someone as talented as Travis.

And if you’re wondering if the whole Stroman thing changed the good will from “King Albert”, that doesn’t appear to be the case either. Madani asked the 16 year veteran about the situation prior to Monday’s game.

As I said earlier, even the classiest of individuals can get heated in the midst of competition, and it looks like that was the case with the whole “Stroman celebration thing”. It’s over and done with, and we didn’t see or hear about it further on Monday, thankfully.

Next: Blue Jays' Stroman angers the Angels with his swagger

Putting yourselves in the shoes of someone like Travis, it’s gotta be pretty cool to have someone like Pujols take the time to approach you with compliments and encouragement. He might know something about hitting too, what with his 593 home runs and 2,843 career hits, and counting.