Pujols & the St. Louis Cardinals: What Will Never Be

You’ve summed up many of the same things that I’ve been feeling the last few days. The idea of Pujols: The Legend that I could share with my own grandchildren in the future. Now that idealized grandparenting future is gone and there’s really no one else in the queue.

The picture you included reminded me of this story. After the World Series my brothers and I each got a Cardinals tattoo. I realize that was probably not the best decision that I have ever made but it’s something that I share with my brothers. As we were spitballing different design ideas, one of us suggested a band around the arm that included all the retired numbers. Of course, we would leave space between the “:2” and the “6” for the next retired number. ***sigh*** I’m so glad that I decided on a different design.

now i can sob myself to sleep.

for helping me move on to the Acceptance phase of my grief over this whole Pujols thing.

for putting what I feel about this into words.

i’m so glad i don’t have any article of clothing with Albert’s name on it. i fear in my state of grief i’d do something i’d probably regret. like not saving it for a shop rag.

i was looking around friday & i actually don’t have anything with his face or name on it. i’ve always felt this disconnect with Albert, i can’t put my finger on it, but for as great as he’s been, he’s never been my favorite player, or even favorite Cardinal for that matter. that was always Ozzie or Willie or Jordan or Lankford or Edmonds or Wainwright or Carp. Albert was great, probably the greatest player i’ll ever see play. but he was never my great player. he was all of ours, he was every baseball fans player. Albert never really seemed to belong to only Cardinal fans. and now, sadly, he never will.

i loved Albert, i wanted more than anything to one day see him break all those records & wear that red coat. i wanted so badly to take my nephews to a game at Busch III and have them witness his greatness. but now that will never happen. the thing Albert will never understand is he did more than break the hearts & take away the current Cardinals fans joy. he took that & so much more from future generations of Cardinals fans. and that’s something i’ll never forgive him for.

if you haven’t yet, head on over to the PD, Bernie get’s it right yet again.

I definitely am with you on the lack of empathy for Pujols. If he wanted to remain a Cardinal he could have taken the lesser deal, and the fact that he felt he needed to have a personal services contract makes me think he’s a kind of a dumbass.

However, I’m having trouble holding him at fault for going to the Angels. He passed up a great opportunity, but I don’t think he did so solely for the money. The Angels will be a very good team over the next few years, IMO better than the Cardinals considering the large payroll advantage they have, and I don’t think Pujols would have gone to a team like the Marlins or the Nationals if he were offered the Angels contract. There are other reasons why he might have gone to the Angels: I like tom s.’ idea that he was looking for a new challenge, and the AL also allows him to DH and prolong his career.

So it’s not fair to say that Pujols definitely made the wrong choice, or one that violates baseball ethics. Your story is sad, but it’s anecdotal and I would bet that most fans don’t feel the same way about legacy in this day and age. There is also the converse – going to the Angels will make a lot of Angels fans feel strongly about Pujols. You don’t think there are some young Cardinals fans just watching for the first time who idealize Matt Holliday and would like him to finish his career here? Carp as well. Maybe you can fault Pujols for not taking advantage of an opportunity, but I’m not going to forsake the guy.

This is all coming from a guy who’s first experience with the Cardinals was watching Pujols hit a home run. He is literally the reason why I am a Cards fan.

What I now have in my Cardinals fan heart is a desire to see the BOB play the Angels as often as possible and beat them, all the freaking time.

BTW, I’m not telling anyone what to do, but I pushed it to 100 in the Cardinal fan-o-meter thingy on the front page. Just saying.

I know exactly what you mean. I’ve never seen The Man play, but for some reason he still stands as the head of a pantheon that I can’t quite put a finger on. That Musial Sports Illustrated is something that I am in awe of, and yes, that put me in tears.

When I first got it I was living in the dorms at the time, and I had left it behind at my house. Well, my little brother had to do a school project by making a collage of things that he loves. Well, without asking (of course) he cut out one of the pictures of Musial from that magazine to put on there. I was torn because I wanted to be able to cherish that magazine for a very long time, but at the same time how do I get mad at someone whose first idea of “things of love” leads them to think of Musial? Well, I was internally devastated but managed to stay composed when I mildly chastised my brother. Fortunately, all ended well for me when my uncle, who I can attribute my Cardinals fandom to, heard about what had happened and gave me his copy.

shows up for an official event with the cardinals, that player is compensated. However; I don’t know if the compensation is negotiated in terms of terms of x dollars for x events, or x dollars for x years, or on an event to event bases. (Hey Sutter, do you want to come and throw out the first pitch of the world series along side Bob Gibson and Adam Wainwright?)

That being said, I have no idea why Pujols would feel that those appearances needed to be negotiated into his playing contract.

that can span some generations and provide a focal point for fans in general
musial was that for me and my dad

one reason i am not much of a pro basketball or football fan

I’m not angry at him, at least not anymore. There is a lot in this to leave a bitter taste (in particular, leaving everything hinging on his decision for the past three or four years), but at the end of the day, Pujols gave us a lot of happy memories, and re-upped once for a below-market contract that gave the team a lot of surplus value (of course, while still making him stupidly, incomprehensibly rich).

I"m just glad that he’s gone to a team where I’m never going to have to much think about him or worry about him once Carp throws that first pitch to Molina in April. I have a feeling that in a year or so, I’ll be completely over this, and the good memories will be all that are left.

I hope he breaks Bonds’ career home run record and goes to the hall with his hat turned backward.

/ancient Jewish proverb

What’s your call for the Waino-Pujols matchup at the 2012 ASG?

(if this was nexdef’d, sorry)

If you want to do the meet-up, put your availability in the discussion my sig links to. Time is getting short.
Also, if I could get a couple more recs for that, it’d stay up at the top and be more likely to be seen. Call me a whore if you want, but I’m just a rec-capitalist.

to have a lot of Cardinal baseball under my belt. When bgh talks about expectations I can look back to the time when I first became a hardcore baseball fan.. Though I do have memories of watching the ‘67 and ’68 WS, I was a wee lad then and by the time I became a hardcore baseball fan, in 1973 at age 12, those ’60s championship teams were long gone and didn’t feel like “mine.” The thing I remember most is that in the 1970s we had damned few expectations of success. Watching those teams, with that sparkling Ted Sizemore/Mike Tyson middle infield (how did we ever lose a game?), all we knew was that we would regularly get beat up by the better NL teams. We were always looking up in the NL East standings at the Pirates (and later in the decade, the Phillies), and always getting beaten down by Cincy and LA. Our idea of hope was the ridiculous belief that Heity Cruz might somehow become a star, or that one of these years Ken Reitz would beat out Mike Schmidt for the GG. Of course, my near-despair at the time was just a function of the myopic, short-term perspective of a teenager for whom a season or three seemed like a lifetime.

The Herzog years showed me that hopelessness was not a permanent condition, and the years since then have taught me to really appreciate the winning times when they come around, and bear the losing times. In the Herzog and TLR years I got a lot more success than I had once thought possible, and Pujols was the centerpiece of the best teams in that second era. So, unhappy as I am about AP leaving, I’ll always think back fondly on his time here (and I’ll keep my photo of AP and Musial up on the wall) in honor of what Albert did for us. To the younger fans on this board I’ll just say that 10 years is a long time, and a lot of you will look back at this low point and laugh a little at how badly this made you feel. And in the shorter term, I’ll guarantee that the phrase “pitchers and catchers report” will bring the same smile it always does.

Also, i enjoyed bernie’s piece about pujols

The Rams fan in my office is talking about how Green Bay has a “so-so” team. “Finley is a nice player. Jennings is ok. Rogers is obviously good. But their defense isn’t anything special. Their o-line is just average.”

Followed by more talk of how he doesn’t understand why the Rams can’t win.

It’s been a relatively quiet year for him (and given the Rams record it should be) but he’s still got some gems.

thanks for that, bgh.

I read between the lines in the same way as you and it just sickens me to think that mister “it’s not about the money” Pujols wanted guaranteed pay for an extra ten years for what the current HOF’ers do presumably for free.

and Bernie also has a good article… Pujols seems pretty self-absorbed. He’s perfect for Orange County – an authenticity-free zone if there ever was one.

He took questions submitted via Twitter and answered them in the post. Here’s an answer for those in the community wondering about Cespedes:

Yoennis Cespedes?

No and no. I talked to someone at the Winter Meetings with a very close knowledge of the Cespedes situation, and I was told in no uncertain terms that the Cardinals are not expected to be any kind of player for the Cuban outfielder.

I will say that the sadness, bitterness, and anger expressed in some of the comments over the last few days is completely foreign to me. I’ve gotten more upset over a Ryan Franklin blown save in Mid-April than I have over Pujols leaving.