Albert Pujols and the Bitter End

It's all about the money.

Okay, let me back up. It can be about the stability of a long-term contract, a less-hostile sports environment, moving closer to family, or playing for a proven team.

None of that was in play this time. So it comes back to the money.

Albert Pujols had a choice: take big money and stay in St. Louis for a long time, or take big money and move out to the bright lights of...Anaheim (Seriously, can we pull the "Los Angeles" tag already? Orange County is a far cry from South Central). Even choice, but let's delve deeper.

Pujols had a choice: take a long-term contract for 200 million dollars-plus and stay in St. Louis, the town that he rebuilt. Take big money and stay in St. Louis, where he was a three-time MVP and two-time World Series champion. Take long-term stability and stay in St. Louis, probably retire as a Cardinal and have statues and memorials built in every conceivable green space that was not already occupied.

Stay in St. Louis and retain your public image as a prolific hitter that happened to be the most genuine unselfish ballplayer since Cal Ripken, Jr.

Or take a little more money and run...to Anaheim.

It was all about the money.

Legacy...

The immediate response has been awful toward Pujols. Many Cardinals fans are distraught their hero took a fast powder out of town. Some, like my friend who uploaded the photo below, are angry at him for stringing them along. Meanwhile, some writers are trashing him and his agent for pulling out every holdout trick in a ploy to get more money.

I wish it said "Muestrame la dinero", a la Rod Tidwell.

Is this unfair to Pujols? No. Plain and simple.

I said in February that Albert should stick around in St. Louis. He was the king there, the biggest face of the town since Kurt Warner/Marshall Faulk. The Rams were huge, but STL loves baseball, and the Cardinals are always going to be the draw. Simply put, Albert was "The Man."

Now, he's just another greedy ballplayer.

...of Champions

Three hundred miles up Route 66, another sentimental favorite and quality player chose sunnier climes as well. Mark Buerhle took about $15 million-per-year to play for Ozzie Guillen and the suddenly wealthy Miami Marlins after eleven years with the Chicago White Sox. Now if you don't know by now that I am a completely biased White Sox fan, your vision needs to be checked or adjusted. I wanted Mark Buerhle to stay with the Sox forever. I wanted him to pitch on the South Side for 20 years and win 300 games, three more Gold Gloves and at least one more World Series.

All of those desires were pipe dreams, but the sentiment remained: in my mind, Mark Buerhle was a South Side lifer. This is the guy who used the infield rain tarp as a slip-and-slide. The same guy who said "he hated going over to Wrigley Field" right before he started a game there. The same Mark Buerhle who pitched a no-hitter, perfect game and set the record for consecutive batters retired in a White Sox uniform.

Mark Buerhle was the best White Sox pitcher since Doc White (and if you don't know who that is, you're not alone: he retired sometime before World War I). He was a South Sider all the way.

But the White Sox were rebuilding, Ozzie was in Florida, and the Marlins were spending the money to win. The choice was clear for Buerhle. So he packed up and left.


The space between

So what's the difference? Two icons both left their teams via free agency without, it seemed, so much as a glance in the rear-view mirror. So why are White Sox fans wishing Mark Buerhle good luck in Florida while Cardinals fans are burning Pujols jerseys? (That hasn't actually happened yet, but I'm waiting for the first report.)

Reason #1: Cards fans still have the championship afterglow, while the Sox are going into rebuilding mode.


Anytime a team wins their league's championship, there's a "grace period" granted for that particular team, from the MVP down to the trainer. It can't be quantified, but in layman's terms, that championship team's value to the fan base is equal to the number of years they can get a table at the best restaurant in town without waiting. (This formula does not apply to the 1985 Chicago Bears; Kevin Butler could get a table at 7 pm on Friday night at Smith & Wollensky's.)

The Cardinals are a very successful franchise in terms of 'chips, but they still love baseball enough to go wild when they do win. Considering they were Atlanta loss away from not being in the playoffs, this championship banner means a bit more. So for Pujols, arguably the keystone offensive player of the postseason save for David Freese, the decision to jump ship hurt Cardinals fans who are still riding the high of winning the Series.

Sox fans, on the other hand, are coming off their third consecutive underwhelming season. Alex Rios and Adam Dunn badly underperformed with Jake Peavy not far behind; Gordon Beckham made baby steps toward regaining his rookie form; the Sox had an awful start to the year and couldn't make a sustained run at first place in the division. By the end of the season, Ozzie was gone, Joey Cora with him and Greg Walker was finally kicked out the door. The painful word "rebuilding" was on everyone's lips, and the Sergio Santos trade made it official.

Buerhle's departure wasn't that much of a surprise; he won't have a chance at a title for at least two years in Chicago, and the Fish are putting their chips on the table for the coming season. White Sox fans are a cynical, sarcastic bunch, but they appreciate their heroes, and Mark Buerhle gave them the World Series championship they had lusted after for years (even though ESPN spends too much time focusing on the Cubs to admit it...sorry, I've got to stop doing that.) They realized his decision was about more than money, and for that, they wished him luck.

Reason #2: The LeBron James Effect.

It could only have been more perfect if Pujols had gone to Miami instead of Buerhle. There are differences in the respective decision: Albert had already won championships in St. Louis (feeling salty, 'Bron?) and LeBron actually took a cut in pay to play in Miami. Still, the moves are too close in chronological proximity to not be compared. Albert's decision to leave seems about as selfish as LeBron's, but for a more lousy reason: it was only for the money.

Another parallel is how both men expressed their desire to remain in their "native" cities just before they decided to dip out. Can't you see Cardinals fans making a YouTube video with Pujols quotes peppered in while they talk about how he betrayed them?

That dude with the axe is really scary. He looks normal, but yeah, scary all the same.

Take heart, Cardinals fans: he went to Anaheim. They've been scooping up free agents with little results for the past five years or so. Just like LeBron, Albert won't be winning anything in the near future.

Reason #3: What'cha gonna do with all that cash, all that cash in that contract?


Now that I've gotten the hook from "My Humps" stuck in your head, take a trip back in time with me to 2001. Alex Rodriguez was putting up absolute insane numbers with the Mariners and was finally out of his rookie contract. The success-starved Texas Rangers decided to pay him an unheard of $249 million dollars over 10 years, making him the richest player in American sports. Six years later, he walked out on Texas after not delivering them to the promised land and signed an even larger contract with the Yankees.

What's the lesson here?

In a time of economic strife around the globe, the idea of athletes signing multi-million dollar contracts is ridiculous. The possibility of them receiving 10 million dollars or more per year to play a sport is absolutely ridiculous. Without getting too preachy, I'll just say that people are leaving college without the possibility of a steady job, while jackasses like Eddie House continue to eat. There's something wrong with that.

Albert Pujols was different. He used his fame for charity work, both in Missouri and his native Domincan Republic. A center for Down syndrome patients bears his name. The man realized the idea Charles Barkley put forth in his book I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It: "If playing is all you're going to do, you've missed the boat." Pujols did more than just hit and catch a baseball, he gave back.

This time, he took. He took a lot. Money will color a lot of debates, but in this case, it's deserved.

The aftermath


I won't speculate on any other possible reasons Pujols decided to walk. Once the physical goes through (and wouldn't it be some scandal if it didn't?), Albert will be wearing a different team's red-and-white. He should be the powerful hitter the Halos have been searching for to back up their solid pitching staff. He might prove the experts and shunned fans wrong and still be a prolific hitter 10 years from now. In St. Louis, the Cards could go forward and remain playoff contenders, even with an inexperienced manager and without one of the five greatest hitters in baseball history.

These scenarios are hard to imagine, but it's baseball. Anything can happen. I should have realized that when I said that Pujols should stay in St. Louis. That he had to stay in St. Louis. I was thinking about legacy. I was thinking about the fans. I was thinking about the emotional values.

The whole time, it was just about the money.

JS

The Greatest World Series That No One Knew About

The Fall Classic is finally living up to its name.

At the beginning of this season's World Series, I would have taken the Rangers in six games. Nelson Cruz was on fire (still is), they had the superior lineup and bullpen, and they had the experience of losing in the final stanza last season. The Rangers are hungrier, I thought. They'll gain the upper hand eventually.

Six games have come and gone and no one has walked away with trophy yet. Here we stand on October 28, 2011, counting down the hours to every true sports fan's dream.

Game 7.

Peoria's been ablaze in red this October, from the leaves on the trees, to the red Cardinal jerseys, to the angry expressions of sour Cubs fans, praying that the Redbirds fall. Central Illinois (and I can only assume a good portion of Texas) has been locked into this World Series.

The rest of America is not.

Moments in time

To say the World Series has seen drama would be severely underselling the point. To say it has been spectacular still might not be enough. Game 1 was won on a go-ahead pinch hit single (the first time that's happened in 16 years) by a player who was not on the Opening Day roster. Game 2 saw a missed cutoff throw enable a ninth-inning comeback. Game 3 might've cemented Albert Pujols' status as the greatest hitter of the post-steroid era and top five in major league history. Games 4 and 5 saw the Rangers get clutch pitching and hitting performances to win.

Then last night, David Freese became a folk hero.

Note: Can you believe Joe Buck stole the "we'll see you tomorrow night" phrase? Come on, Joe, have some respect. Kirby Puckett is a Hall of Famer and a legend in Minnesota. At least be creative.

This World Series has had it all: the rise of unknown players (Allen Craig and Derek Holland); a career resurrected (Mike Napoli); bullpen follies (pick up the phone, Tony); and finally, the walk-off home run.

To put it in perspective, only three times prior had their been a walkoff home run in Game 6 of the World Series (trivia prize if you can name the guy who hit each bomb):

-1975, Boston vs. Cincinnati
-1991, Minnesota vs. Atlanta
-1993, Toronto vs. Philadelphia

Now we're set for Game 7 of arguably the best World Series in the last decade. So why isn't anyone watching?

Where have all the viewers gone?

The year's TV ratings for the World Series have been eye-popping—in a bad way. The average ratings for the first six games checked in at 9.5 percent of American households that watched the game. (Game 7, as is the norm, saw a bump up to 14.7, still paling in comparison to the 2001 Game 7 rating of 23.5.)Average number of viewers for this Series? 15 million.
The Nielsen ratings for the 2004 World Series averaged 15.9 for four games. That translates to an average of 25.4 million people that saw the Boston Red Sox win their first championship in 86 years. (Note: This is back when "Two And a Half Men was still innocently funny.) No World Series since then has had a ratings/share above either of those numbers. Next highest is 2001 (Yankees vs. Diamondbacks), and third is 2008 (Yankees vs. Phillies).

Hmmm...wait, there's the answer to our ratings mystery!

The Red Sox and Yankees aren't playing.

Between 1984 (when Nielsen began their ratings system) and 2002, no World Series game had a rating below 10. Before 1996, only one game had a rating below 15. The World Series was interesting. Baseball was interesting, and America wanted to see the glory of the Fall Classic. But oversaturation of the East Coast Giants and the disillusionment of performance-enhancing drugs has taken the luster out of America's game.

To be fair, had Boston or New York made the final round, more people would be paying attention, but not too many more.

A can't-miss affair

Baseball's grandest stage reminds us how quickly the game can create heroes and villains. Reggie Jackson became Mr. October, while Bill Buckner became a city's pariah. Paul Konerko earned Chicago's undying respect, Byung-Hyun Kim became a national joke, and Albert Pujols most likely garnered himself a contract extension.

Tonight, a winner will rise. Another mortal baseball player will become immortal in the minds and hearts of fans everywhere. Tomorrow, we go back to our regular lives and the ever-grating monotony of football season.

Tonight is Game 7. Make sure you tune in before this instant classic fades into memory.

Cards and Rangers fans alike: see you in the cheap seats.

JS

...And the Five Worst Rivalries in Sports

Chinese wisdom, specifically the theory of "yin yang", tells us that for everything, there is an opposite.

For every light, there is a darkness. For every good, an evil. For our purposes, we shall say that for every great rivalry, there is a lousy one.

Not all feuds can be great. Some take time to develop and ferment, like a fine...grape juice. Others start with a flash and somehow keep their fire until flaming out, supernova-style. But other rivalries have lost their luster after years of passionate meetings, while others are media-driven and cannot be called rivalries at all. As I listed the five best rivalries in American sports today, here's a count of the five worst rivalries in the United States.

Honorable Mention:

Roger Federer - Rafael Nadal

This will forever be one of the great rivalries in tennis, up their with McEnroe/Borg/Connors and Evert/Navratilova. It was a classic battle: upstart Nadal vs. the established superstar Federer, and while der Meister destroyed all other comers, he could never quite seem to beat the southpaw Nadal, most notably on the clay surface of Roland Garros.

But the sun seems to have set on what some have called the greatest rivalry in the history of professional tennis. Roger Federer has not won a major championship since last season's Australian Open and his ranking has dropped significantly. He lost to Nadal once again at this year's French Open, and both men have been surpassed during Novak Djokovic's astounding run to the top. It would be heinous to categorize this great feud with the worst rivalries in sports today, but it does look as if the Roger-Rafa rivalry has seen it's last match. It was fun while it lasted.

5. San Francisco Giants - Los Angeles Dodgers

This was one of the most storied rivalries in Major League Baseball, dating back to the days when both teams played in New York. The Bums of Brooklyn may have chased the Yankees for glory through the 1940s and early-'50s, but it was the New York (Baseball) Giants that ended the Dodgers 1951 season with the legendary "Shot Heard 'Round the World".

The Dodgers-Giants intracoastal rivalry stayed true through the twilight years of the 20th century, but lately things have turned sour. The Giants fell hard after winning the World Series last season, and the Dodgers, even with a multitude of young talent, haven't been able to get over the hump since 2008. With the Diamondbacks making their surprising run this season and a parking lot fight between fans turning dangerous early this season (see video below), the Giants and the "Dah-jahs" rivalry hasn't been able to live up to their past standards.

Let's hope these two teams can reignite their future matchups. In the meantime, let's hope the Giants can keep their logo.

 4. Minnesota - Michigan (college football)

The oldest named rivalry in college football—isn't. Big Blue has taken home the "Little Brown Jug" 20 times since 1986, and Minnesota hasn't won the game since 2005, with most of the margins in that span exceeding 10 points. Minnesota football has been on a downward spiral in the last few years, and even with the hiring of successful coach Jerry Kill, that trend will take some time to reverse.

Ohio State/Michigan would have taken this spot had Ohio State not been victimized by their own infidelities toward transparency. Minnesota football has just been bad. Hopefully, the Golden Gophers can translate their budding basketball success to the football field and challenge the Wolverines once again.

3. Notre Dame - Southern California (college football)

Unlike the annual Notre Dame/Navy game (which will be on the longer list of best current rivalries), this contest has also been lopsided in recent years, thanks to Notre Dame's overwhelming mediocrity.

To be fair, I've hated Notre Dame for a long time now (more due to obnoxious fans at my high school than anything), but the Golden Domers haven't made it any easier for me to jump back on the train. Bob Davie had the last decent run of success before handing the reins to Ty Willingham (who many believe wasn't given a fair shake), Charlie Weis and now Brian Kelly. Weis' teams were fairly successful, but had the ignominy of: being the first team to lose to Navy in 43 years (2007); the first team to lose to an eight-loss team (Syracuse, 2008); and another loss to unranked Navy in 2009.

Notre Dame finally beat USC in Los Angeles last year, Kelly's first season as coach. Prior to that, they had not beaten the Trojans since 2001. Notre Dame is showing some promise under Kelly, but it will take some time for the Fighting Irish to reestablish themselves as top dog. Still, this rivalry will always have one of the coolest trophies ever: the Jeweled Shillelagh.

(credit to Wikipedia user Jakesthesnake)

2. Chicago Cubs - St. Louis Cardinals

Let me start by saying this: CubssuckCubssuckCubssuckCubssuckCubssuck(STOP!)

Whew. Now that's done, I'll elaborate: the Cubs are really bad.

This probably the most historic rivalry in the National League. The Cubs and Cards have always been geographical rivals, and have played in the same division since the leagues were split in 1969. The Cardinals are the most successful team in the senior circuit, but the Cubs have always played them tough. Lately, the Bruins haven't had a lot of success against the Redbirds on the Bat. By the numbers:

-Since 2000, the Cardinals and Cubs have faced off 194 times. The Cards have won 111 of those games.

-In the same time frame, St. Louis has gone to the playoffs eight times, with a record of 12-25 (including the 2011 World Series), 10 postseason series wins and a World Series victory. The Cubs have gone to the playoffs three times with a record of 3-10 and one postseason victory.

I was going to add that the President of the United States made the choice to be a White Sox fan even as the South Siders were having about the same lean years as the Cubs, but that's not a real statistic. Suffice it to say that the Cubbies have not measured up well against their rivals on Route 66. Things might well turn over: Albert Pujols is on the clock if the Cards don't beat the Rangers in the World Series, and new Cubs owner Tom Ricketts has shown he's willing to win by hiring former Red Sox boy genius GM Theo Epstein. Any Cubs surge would make this a worthy rivalry of Sunday Night Baseball, unlike our top worst rivalry...

First pitch at the '08 All-Star Game...in St. Louis. Prez does it like that.

1. New York Yankees - Boston Red Sox

Two great teams. Two franchises close in proximity. Two rabid fan bases, even when you discount the bandwagoners. Two areas that have never liked each other since this nation was founded. So why, oh why does this qualify as the worst rivalry in American sports today?

Oversaturation.

There are many things I love. Butter, steak, Five Guys burgers, Zebra Cakes. But give me too much in quick succession and I'll get absolutely sick of it (Exhibit A: John Cena). The Red Sox - Yankees clash has been shoved down our throats by ESPN so much in the last ten or 15 years that the majority of baseball fans outside of the North-Atlantic Coast are disgusted by the Sunday Night Baseball yearly lineup, which I'd guarantee has Yanks-BoSox 75 percent of the schedule. It doesn't help that ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut make it easy for the sports network to focus their attention on this clash.

It's not that the teams are bad, or that the games aren't fun to watch. It's solely the repeated exposure. Please, ESPN, read this and schedule some other games. Take New York vs. Boston away from national television for an entire season even. Maybe then, I won't gag each time I see Kevin Youkilis' giant chin in high definition.

Until next time, see you in the cheap seats.

JS

Albert Pujols and the Moment of Clarity

They've done it before, they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it, it seems only children weep. — To Kill a Mockingbird

It was one of the worst days of my life.

It was early on a Saturday morning when my mom woke me up for a news story. Usually any local news would bounce off my 15-year-old teenage bubble, but this one froze me.

The Chicago White Sox were selling the naming rights of their stadium. As of that season, there would be no more Comiskey Park.

I'd seen my mother sobbing at my grandmother's funeral and been to memorial service for a high school friend's brother. So why did this have me repeating the words, "They can't do that"?

Glory days

Being a young sports fan was like having spring training last 10 years. As soon as I could read, I was searching for White Sox books. When my fingers were deft enough to hold the newspaper without dropping pages, I was flipping to the sports section, checking scores and reading columns. I could recite statistics off the top of my head and knew exactly what happened in last night's game.

We didn't have cable so I listened to the radio, drinking in the sounds of the game from John Rooney and Ed Farmer. I read the Sun-Times every day, game or no game, and like any good Sox fan, I grew to hate Jay Mariotti and the Tribune for favoring the Cubs.

I treasured those few games I could get to in a summer, pleading with my mom to spend the 14 bucks on a Kids Day game or half-price tickets on Mondays. Usually, she relented with two conditions: she would never sit in the upper deck and she read a book during the game.

The Sox had a middle-of-the-road team in a stadium that everybody hated in a neighborhood no one wanted to be in after dark. But I loved them. I loved James Baldwin and Mike Caruso as much as Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordonez.

It was a charmed life.

Comiskey Park was a part of that life, as much a part of me as the White Sox. I passed the park on the Red Line in the winter months, staring at the scoreboard and counting the days until April. I watched the pinwheels spin during night games after home runs and the occasional Sox victory. I remember the old black-and-white scoreboard signs that would play after plays ("Send it flyin' to the Ryan" was my favorite) and Nancy Faust playing "Na-na-na-na" on the organ when the opposing pitcher was taken out.

That was Comiskey Park. That Saturday in 2003, those memories were swept away for $68 million dollars and a cell phone company.

End of innocence

There's a point in every fan's life when the fun of the game is replaced with reality. These days, it's when the franchise player leaves town for a better offer, your favorite player brushes aside an autograph request or when the owner makes stupid moves with no regard to the fan base (I'm looking at you, Dan Snyder).

You could see it in the faces of every Cavs fan this summer, young and old alike, as LeBron said those damning words and left Cleveland behind.

The point where the "game" becomes a "business". The moment of clarity, if you will.

It's funny to say that, because sports, especially baseball, has been a business almost since they became professionalized. But when you're young, you don't know any better. There's your team, the good guys versus everyone else. Anyone in a uniform is a little bit larger than life.

Then reality comes crashing in. All the colors become real.

And the only ones who get hurt are the kids.

Ghost of the hometown hero

Today is the deadline for Albert Pujols to sign a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. Pujols and the Cards set this date out of respect to Stan Musial, who is receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in Washington.

Pujols has often been compared to Musial, with fans going so far as to nickname the slugger "El Hombre" in reference to Musial's moniker of "The Man". While Pujols doesn't care for the nickname (he believes it's disrespectful to Musial), he has to realize one thing: he is the man in St. Louis now.

Musial played in a generation where players played their entire careers for one team, and those careers often last 20-plus years. Ted Williams did it. Joe DiMaggio did it. Harmon Killebrew did it. And the fans loved them.

Now, the culture seems to be "get yours and get out while you still can". No one sticks around a team longer than a few years, and they jump as soon as they get a better offer from somewhere else. The only baseball player in the last 15 years who might finish where he started is Derek Jeter, and the Yankees even tried to lowball him out of town.

Albert Pujols is more than just a franchise player. To many a young baseball fan in St. Louis, he's larger than life. There are kids who will imitate his swing, wear his number 5 as they grow up, and try to play first base like him. They'll draw pictures of Albert in the margins of notebooks and daydream about watching him swat home runs.

In an age where there are no more hometown heroes, Albert Pujols and the Cardinals must reach an agreement and have their cornerstone in St. Louis his whole career. Pujols is the Cardinals, and that's worth more than any contract.

There's plenty of 12-year-olds Cardinal fans who still have a love of the game. Let's not enlighten them to  the reality of the business just yet.

See you in the cheap seats.

JS