"What did I want? I wanted to be a Cardinal forever. That's my goal."
— Albert Pujols
What a load of garbage that is. Unless you add "...if the price is right." And notice the use of past tense. But I digress.
As anyone with a pulse knows by now, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman and resident baseball deity Albert Pujols is now in full shutdown mode when it comes to the deadline (now long gone) he imposed on Cards management to discuss a contract extension with him, a deadline that came and went without much more than a whisper from the front office crew. You know, for two entities so desperately in love with one another, they sure don't seem so in the public eye.
Most of what's been brought to light concerning this matter has been rumor and innuendo; the team has supposedly made several offers (as well as modifications of same), including a stake in the freakin' team, but the only certain offer on the table was an 8-year, $200 million monster that Pujols barely sniffed at. So we can now say, with some assurance, that $25 million per year is not quite enough to entice the Busch Basher.
And let's be honest, who can blame him?
Right? Anyone?
Now, I could simply go the way of the purist and rail on and on about how no man should ever make that kind of money to play a kid's game, and how the players and free agency in general is the root of all evil, blah, blah, blah, but I'm not going that direction. This time. What I would say is simply this: pay the man.
The financial groundwork in baseball and in pro sports as a whole was laid many years ago. We all know the stark reality of free agency: the money is there, and the players, as the primary attraction, deserve their fair share. The amount they make, no matter how egregious it may seem on the surface, should be based on a simple percentage of the gross revenue of their respective teams. For example, if the Yankees have a player who demands $30 million a year, no big whoop. But if Kansas City has to deal with the same demand, not on your life do they even dream of paying that much. They'd have to sell the stadium to cover it. Probably. Assuming you could find a buyer.
There was even speculation that KC would actually make a play for Pujols, like that's going to happen. The theory that the three-time MVP's ties to Kansas City would be enough to keep him in the state is shaky, at best, and anyhow GM David Glass quietly put that rumor out of its misery.
So it all comes down to whether or not the team can swing it. Of course, clubhouse lawyer (literally) Tony LaRussa is convinced that the Players Union has "leaned on" Pujols basically to extort as much money from St. Louis as possible in order than future free agents could use his contract as a starting point. Problem is, it just doesn't matter. If they want to keep the big man, they have to ante up. And by allowing the deadline pass them by, they've lost their first, best chance to tie him up for the next decade.
With St. Louis out of the running (for the moment), all manner of speculation has sprung up; the Red Sox (apologies to Adrian Gonzalez), the Yankees (ditto, Mark Texeira), even the Cubs (fat chance) have been mentioned as possibilities. But $25 million a year is a lot of lunch money, and he's already turned that down, anyway. Maybe if everyone in Illinois searched under their sofa cushions and in the floorboards of their cars, they might be able to swing half a year. Even being the Cubs fan that I am, I have to think that Albert has better sense than to even consider that move. But I can dream.
The bottom line is this: the Cardinals knew what was ahead of them, they knew this was a once-in-a-generation-type of player they were dealing with, they knew they had to make a serious offer, and they blew it. Big time. There's now a distinct possibility that we could see one of the greatest hitters ever in another uniform, and if St. Louis allows that to happen, the repercussions could be severe. What if he does go to the Cubs? You don't think that's gonna hurt their chances of winning the NL Central? Like he wouldn't stick it to them every time the Cubs and Cards faced off? Please. He's a machine, for Pete's sake.
There a lot of fans out there for whom escalating salaries have been a tough pill to swallow, especially when ticket prices have made it nearly impossible for a family to attend more than a couple games a year without taking out a second mortgage, but this is the state of the game, the grim truth of the business side of the grand old game. And whatever dream the Cardinals' brass is languishing under, they better snap out of it, and soon.
Because letting go of the biggest baseball legend in St. Louis since Musial could make the years ahead a real nightmare for the entire organization.
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