Today's real post will have to wait while I sort out my morning, but in the meantime—Albert Pujols continues to have not signed. Over the last week or so—and continuing indefinitely—we've been forced to deal with stories that look a lot like this, which are, if nothing else, a reminder that the few scraps of information we've taken for granted for a year and a half are still really new to some people. Right below the high school football in your local paper, then, or after the MMA highlights on Comcast SportsNet, or tweeted by some ESPN personality:
St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols could be headed out of "The Gateway To The West" after the 2011 Major League Baseball season. The Sports Daily has just learned that the slugger has set an ultimatum, and won't negotiate his contract after the beginning of Spring Training. Cardinals General Manager John Mosely tells reporters that contract talks are progressing nicely...
This is it, but since the Cardinals haven't directed things by issuing a press release that everybody can rewrite on the same day, this one piece of news has been especially ductile, stretched thin across state lines. Hopefully we'll have something new to talk about; hopefully it's good news. But it looks, so far, like it won't come from a leak outside of St. Louis.