Albert Pujols = classless

[HibachiDG]

Figured what the hell, I'd steal DublinMike's awesome thread title.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2680495

The St. Louis Cardinals' slugger is upset he lost out to Philadelphia's Ryan Howard for the National League MVP award, saying Wednesday the honor should go to someone on a playoff team.

"I see it this way: Someone who doesn't take his team to the playoffs doesn't deserve to win the MVP," Pujols said in Spanish at a news conference organized by the Dominican Republic's sports ministry.

Athletes have said many dumb things, but, uh, this may be the dumbest. He says this as the PHILLIES WON TWO MORE GAMES THAN THE CARDINALS. Had the Phillies been in the WORST DIVISION IN BASEBALL, they would have made the damn playoffs. Probably would have won 90 games, even.

[doublee]

Meh, he is only saying what a significant portion of the media already believes. Truth be told the Phillies only went 20-17 against the Central this year which is not exactly an overwhelming record. They had a better record against the other two divisions.

Say what you want about the 'Worst Division in baseball' fact is the Cards won the Series and that is all that matters.

[HibachiDG]

Winning the playoffs is more about runs, though. There is a reason why the playoff games themselves aren't factored in to MVP voting.

The vote is based on the regular season and in the regular season, the Phillies were, at the very least, AS GOOD and on the same level of the Cardinals.

I would hope that the Phillies would have a better record against the East because that is where most of their games are played.

[boston_aloha]

Huh, doesn't sound like Pujols' character - I guess his bitterness got the best of him.

[catman]

I guess you're right, Steve. Pujols always seems like a reasonable guy to me. I've never met him, but know people that know him pretty well. This sort of statement is out of character for him.

[Billy D]

This quote caught my eye even more:

"I thought we were going to sign Soriano, but it wasn't possible. We also intended to trade for him during the season, but the Nationals wanted too much for him," Pujols said.

Ha. He's now in on GM decisions, eh? (Probably heard about it from Soriano, but still)

Anyways, I can't blame a guy too much for speaking his honest opinion, though this wasn't very tactful

[da12ken]

He didn't get icing on his cake. That's all I see it as.

[bama4256]

A person's true colors will eventually surface.

[boston_aloha]

Well on PTI today they reported that Albert is "sick to his stomach" over his comments and will appologize to Howard. I think this is the Pujols we all know - he said it, he feels bad, and now he's owning up to it. A class act.

[catman]

It appears his comments were "heat of the moment" comments. I figured he would come clean and accept the fact that Howard had a better season than he did. He has the ring (or will have), and that should suffice for now.