Pujols to Angels

I admit, I was very saddened when I heard that Albert Pujols was leaving my beloved St. Louis Cardinals to sign with the L.A. Angels. I wasn’t sad for the Cards, heck, they will be fine. I was sad to see the best player in baseball, a Cardinal icon, and great humanitarian leave St. Louis. It was so enjoyable to watch Pujols play. Not only is he one of the best hitters of all time, he plays excellent defense, runs the bases well, and makes smart plays. He is also a great team leader. The Angels are getting a heck of a player.

But I was uneasy with the amount of money it was going to take to resign Albert. The Cardinals were offering $200 million over ten years. That was too much for too long. Only because Albert had become the face of the Cardinals, second only to the great Stan Musial, would have I and apparently the Cardinals paid so much. Now that he is gone, I’m ALMOST relieved the Cards didn’t sign him. I can’t believe I’m saying that! But it frees up money to sign other players for a more balanced team.

Consider, in baseball, no matter how good you are, a player usually gets four at bats per game. And the worst hitter on the team also gets four at bats per game. It’s the same for everyone, superstar or not. So, Pujols could only hit four times, the same as Skip Schumacher or Yadier Molina. In football, I can get my stud thirty carries a game. In basketball the star can shoot twice as much as the entire team (or more). Thus, the star can only do so much. And Pujols, the biggest star of all, can only do so much.

I will miss Sir Albert, we all will, but the Cardinals will be OK. They won nine World Series titles without him and they’ll win more without him. He can’t be replaced but someone else will get their chance. Isn’t that what we tell a kid in football? When a starter goes down, we grab that young back up, look him in the eye and say, “It’s your turn man, you’re ready, get in there and play hard”. And that’s exactly what the Cardinals will have to do.