Warning: Long post...

A story of "healing" I guess, if there is such a thing.

I was watching a movie on television, and unfortunately didn't have it TiVo'd. Up pops this baseball commercial. And our former favorite player ever, fresh off a spring where he hit .407 with 6 HRs and 17 RBIs is standing there in his full Angels getup.

Apparently, I'm not recovered from this loss, because I looked at the screen for about half a second and just said, "Fuck yourself asshole", and walked out of the room. My wife was pretty confounded until she saw the screen, and realized what I had seen. She's not a baseball fan at all, but said, "Oh, that's Pujols?"

Followed be silence... Nothing more to be said. This is amusing to me because just the other night watching the St. Louis Blues play Columbus, Mr Bill DeWitt was in the broadcast booth, and the same words came to my mouth... I truly seem to just hate both parties for this bullshit.

Votto's signing for 10/225 just makes it worse for me. While I understand you cannot make crazy dumb commitments, I still cannot believe that Pujols ever hit the point where we allowed him to leave. I heard the Fast Lane talking at length about how the Cardinals front office were prepared to lose Pujols. "Normally when you have someone of that caliber leaving, it creates a monumental hole, but the front office seemed to have approached this over the course of the last 4 seasons as if they had no ability to keep him. Signing all that money into Holiday, grabbing Berkman, " ...etc etc etc. They were trying to paint the Front Office as savvy for having an out plan for life after Pujols, but I still have a difficult time understanding why there needed to be life after Pujols. There are a number of "wrongs" here that didn't need to be wrong. Pujols was the statistical god of our lineup for almost every day of his 11 seasons here, but only spent 1 of those seasons as the highest paid player on the club. I appreciate him wanting to win, but I believe that would probably piss anyone off.

How'd you hit? "Off the charts, best ever for the first 11 seasons of a career".
Long term numbers? "Top 5 in HR's (600+) all time should be a very easy achievement, 3000 hits isn't out of the question, career avg way north of .300.
How's your defense? "Solid, before hurting my arm, I played third base effectively, and then moved to first, and won Gold Glove(s)."
Who was the most feared hitter on your team? "Me"
For all 11 seasons? "From day 1"
Any hardware to show for this? "Two World Series rings, MVP Awards, Silver Sluggers, Gold Gloves, which set would you like to see?"

That's really the truth and reality of Pujols in St. Louis, and when you can combine that statement with "Only the highest paid player on the team for 1 season", you get a Superstar icon who's given everything to a club, and getting less than others who haven't given nearly as much.

It's over and done with, but the reality of this situation is that we should have never gotten to this point. Pujols should have been locked up 3 seasons back, when the Front Office had the "additional money now!" bargaining chip to use that would have probably enticed Pujols to sign for 200 million, and letting us keep him for the next 7 years. I don't think the additional 20 million dollars would have killed us over the last 3 seasons, and we'd have saved ourselves 5 million for the next 7 doing it, in addition to NOT having to spend 50+ million on a player that is at or over 40....

I know the views on this have all been hashed out, and I'm trying to still enjoy watching baseball, but I gotta tell you.... It doesn't interest me in the least at this point. I guess opening day is coming soon, I heard someone say tomorrow. I had no idea. Don't even know if we're home or away, nor who we're playing. I don't really know if Carps ready, and couldn't tell you a thing about the 2012 Cardinals, other than they fucked up with Pujols, and now no longer have him on the roster. I can tell you that I'll be feeling the sting of every goddamned stat Pujols puts up in Anaheim, and knowing this basbeall really holds very little interest to me. As a sport with icons and heroes that came from a club, and stayed with a club, I love baseball. I understand business, and needing to move players to keep teams competitve, but the icons shouldn't move... If they do, why should I watch and love some sport where 30 players at random from a big pool of players are better than every other groupings of 30 random players.

I don't think Pujols is blameless. Though late, the Cardinals made substancial offers that would have kept him here, and he could have taken them. Sure he would have made more in Anaheim, but not a crazy amount more. Besides, at some point the number is just a reflection of importance, and nothing more. There's nothing 210 million can't buy that 250 million will take care of. In the end, Pujols painted himself as a money grubber, but in truth, Pujols state of mind was probably in the making for 3-4 years, and in that sense, he has a very strong point.

I cannot bring myself to be an Angels fan. I hate Los Angeles. I don't know how many of you have been there, but it's foul. There's nothing redeeming about the place, even the ocean sucks in Los Angeles. I can't support Pujols for leaving the Cardinals, whether his reasons are valid or not, the fans took it on the chin because he couldn't see past the front office. I can't root against the Cardinals, but I can't root for them either while that front office is running things. The only thing this seems to have accomplished for me is to fuck up all of my interest in professional baseball....

So let me send a special thanks to everyone involved...

Bill, Moz, Dan, Albert, Didi, and anyone I may have missed.
       Fuck yourselves assholes. I can barely force myself to care about your sport now, thanks a million (or 250 million depending on who reads this).

Alz.

Last edited by alz (4/03/2012 11:03 am)