On Tuesday, April 22, 2014 Albert Pujols hit his 499th and 500th career home run at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.

Both home runs came off Nationals pitcher Taylor Jordan, in the first and the fifth innings. With 500 career home runs and counting, Pujols has joined elite Hall of Fame company.

Pujols is easily one of the best players, if not the best, of the 21st century. Hitting 500 home runs used to be one of the biggest achievements in sports, but the "steroid era" inflated a lot statistics. Pujols has never been accused of failed a single drug test in his career. He is on pace to have his thirteenth 30 home run season, and is still on pace for over 600 career home runs. It's incredible that Pujls is still batting .320 this late into his career.

Albert Pujols is now the 26th player in MLB history to hit 500 home runs.

With two World Series, three Most Valuable Player awards, and now a member of the 500 club, Pujols has established himself as one of the greatest Dominican-born players in baseball history. The only two Dominican born players with more home runs are Sammy Sosa (609) and Manny Ramirez (555).

Currently, there is only one Dominican-born player in the Baseball Hall of Fame. That honor belongs to pitcher Juan Marichal (shown above), who was inducted in 1983. With both Ramirez and Sosa having ties to performance enhancers, Pujols may be the second. Marichal once threw a no-hitter and is a 10x all star.

Pujols has already hit nearly half the amount of home runs this season, as he did all of last season. A resurgence is taking place in Los Angeles. With his consistency, Pujols has a good chance to pass Sosa for most home runs ever hit by a Dominican born player. Despite the game being played on the road, in Washington, D.C., fans applauded him and gave a standing ovation. Our nation's capital knew this was a special moment that will only happen once and showed its true colors.

If Pujols simply hits just 21 more home runs, he will move from No. 26 to No. 18 on the all-time home run list. Eventually Pujols will pass names such as Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, and Ernie Banks. Pujols still has at least three more quality seasons left, and he will most likely play until he's 40 because of his enormous contract. A lot more history is going to be made.

There's no doubt that Pujols will end up in Cooperstown eventually. The only questions that remain are: when, and how many votes will he receive?