Pujols leaves St, Louis after 11 years

[Sequimite]

I wanted to speak up for the St. Louis Cardinal fans who are upset with Pujols. There are some angry words flying around but they are not due to his leaving. They are due to what he said after leaving.

This last February the Cardinals offered him an 8 year $198,000,000 contract. He wanted the biggest contract in the history of baseball, exceeding A-Rod's 10 year $275,000,000 Yankee deal. He refused to negotiate during the season so as soon as the season was over they offered him 5 years at $26,000,000 a year, that being the highest "per year" package they felt they were able to offer. Later there were other offers culminating in a $220,000,000 10 year offer, details unknown.

The Angles made a much better offer $254,000,000 over 10 years with incentives that could get him above A-Rod's total.

I was on the Card forums the day this went down and 9 out of 10 comments wished Albert well and agreed that they were glad that the Cardinal organization didn't destroy the team's future competitiveness by offering that kind of deal. The tenth comment was that the Cardinals should have paid him whatever he wanted. As good as Albert is, his production has slipped for three years in a row, he is often injured, he ignores all the coaches and would have been a serious problem for the new Cardinal manager, Matheny, in taking control of the team. And, IMO, he was the fourth best player on the 2011 Cardinal World Series winning team.

Then Albert and Dee Dee started talking.
1) The Cardinals were not "committed" to him.
2) The decision had nothing to do with money.
3) Unlike the Cardinals, after a 30 minute phone call with Moreno he knew the Angels were like "family"
4) He was going where God wanted him to be.
5) Dee Dee (wife) said on St. Louis radio that they were shocked and insulted by the Cardinals offering 26 million per year for 5 years.
6) She added that the criticism of their decision was caused by the devil.

So when you come upon pi$$ed off Cardinals' fans like me please understand that the anger is not over his decision but the BS and disrespect being showered on his former supporters after the decision.

[.357 mag]

Haven't supported Pro sports in a long time. Way to much money flying around and I'm not putting any in the pot. I will and rather spend my money going to watch a high school game and support the town.

[Sequimite]

Haven't supported Pro sports in a long time. Way to much money flying around and I'm not putting any in the pot. I will and rather spend my money going to watch a high school game and support the town.

I agree with your sentiments and I do follow the Sequim Wolves.

But I grew up with the Cardinals and it's too deeply ingrained to walk away from.

[dwayne1341]

TIME 4 MY 1ST RANT ON THIS FORUM:
26 mil for five years, that's like 5,200,000.00 per year. Pujols is one spoiled bitch!
I say screw him, as there are at least a dozen much younger triple A ballplayers who would honestly die for his starting spot. Professional athletes / all big time ballplayers these days are just a bunch of filthy WHORES as they will put out for who has the most $. Look at old Lebraon and how much he loved his hometown of Cleveland. My dead grandfather, who was in WW2, (a St. Lois Cardinals baseball fan) worked in a coal mine from 1946 to 1970 leading the mine operating a continuous miner year after year and never made anywhere close to 50K. I've got a great uncle who is now 97 worked til the age of 70 at a brewery and is the biggest Cubs fan that ever lived. So yea, sports athletes are over paid compared to the people that actually do things for this country.

St. Louis, what do you know about it? I grew up in Southern IL some 90 minutes away from Bush Stadium. As such, I grew up as a St. Louis Cardinal fan, (It was either that or da Cubs on WGBN).
Ozzie Smith now that was a true St. Louis Cardinal, as a kid he had my undying love and respect.
Growing up I saw more St. Louis Cardinal baseball games in person than any other MLB team.
I also saw a bunch of St. Louis Cardinal football games as well, yea I know I'm now an old guy now.
Cardinal football was the likes of Jim Hart, Stump Mitchell, Neil Lomax, and E.J. Junior.
When they went to AZ I was like screw them two times over, the only good player with any heart the AZ Cardinals have ever had was Pat Tillman (God Rest his soul). Crap like this is why I now only watch college football. I just can't stand the modern NFL. We should pay some dumb buff SOB in cornrows millions and millions of dollars a year? B.S.!
Hell, I even saw AC/DC in like 1983/1984 @ the Checker Dome in St Louis before they tore it down...My 1st rock show was For those about to Rock world tour.
I was even at the Guns & Roses riot at the Riverport near St. Louis, MO.

Now at from 37 - 41 years old I'm stuck with the damn Boston RedSucks and all of that bean town type drama. So if you are in or near the Arch thank God you are close by or in St. Louis, MO.

dwayne1341

[zidfeldts]

I think that Albert's wife would be better served with silence. She has done the St. Louis organization a big disservice through her bitterness. The Angels overpaid, in my opinion, and will find that Pujols will be a shadow of his former self by the end of the contract.

[Sequimite]

St. Louis, what do you know about it?

Hah? What do I know? Kenny Boyer lived two doors down when I was a kid and Wally Moon lived around the corner. My dad has several rolls of pictures of the 1944 World Series between the Cardinals and the Browns - no travel since they shared the same stadium.

Some of the most fervent fans are in Southern Illinois but don't get into a pi$$ing contest with me about the Cardinals.

[dwayne1341]

Sequimite - "Some of the most fervent fans are in Southern Illinois but don't get into a pi$$ing contest with me about the Cardinals."

No pissing contest, Pujlos would have done well to have taken the 26 mil and rode out the rest of his baseball days in the city where he became famous.

smitty

[jabba359]

26 mil for five years, that's like 5,200,000.00 per year.

Try re-reading the 1st post. That is $26 million per year, for a total of $130 million.:eek: But yeah, you got that spoiled part right.;)

[JD Spydo]

I don't want to derail your subject matter entirely but this Pujols deal has got me steaming again. To me it is what is destroying the sport of Major League Baseball. For a guy who remembers the "Big Red Machine" ( 1970s Cincinnati Reds) with Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench ect and a couple of other teams from that era it's deals like this that truly make me want to puke :mad:

There is literally no team loyalty at all anymore and there is no super dedication among players like Pete Rose sliding into base like his life depended on it. When you take people like A-Rod and Pujols and several others I could name off it's more like a line up of high dollar whores more than anything :mad:.

Even the Kansas City Royals from the 70s & 80s were so competitive and the team members were so cohesive and loyal to each other that we even had George Brett stay here his entire career. OK I guess some of you think I'm rambling down memory lane but it is a much better street to walk on than this Boulevard of prostitutes we have now that make up this joke called major league Baseball :mad:>>

Where's Chico Esquila?? At least he was good for a great laugh :D

[BAL]

I still haven't forgiven the Royals for trading Bret Saberhagen in 1991. Seriously.

And what were the Red Sox thinking when they traded the Bambino in 1920.

[.357 mag]

If you guys do the math on this. Its 154,000 per at bat.

[JD Spydo]

I still haven't forgiven the Royals for trading Brett Saberhagen in 1991. Seriously.

And what were the Red Sox thinking when they traded the Bambino in 1920.

Yeah even the Royals went bunkers like you said in the 90s>> But I was talking about the Royals of the 1970s and 1980s. They hardly ever traded anyone during that era and even most of the pitchers even stayed here during their careers.

I could name off at least 12 great players who played here most or all of their careers. Ewing Kauffman ( God Rest His Soul) was probably the greatest baseball owner in the history of the major leagues. But when the Rip-Mart family took ownership of the team it's truly went to the lower regions of baseball hell.

Besides I heard that Saberhagen wanted to go to the Mets. But my point was that Baseball has become a literal joke>> and I doubt if anyone could argue against that successfully.

[JD Spydo]

If you guys do the math on this. Its 154,000 per at bat.

Hey 357 you've got a great point ;) When over 45 million of the citizens of this once great country are now on food stamps it is rather obscene that someone makes over $150,000 each time they go to bat or play a game. The last year Brett Favre played football he was making close to a million a game :eek:

I love sports and I'm still a devout Lakers fan (Since 1969) but I'm slowly turning away from all of it. Something is very wrong with this entire picture.

Point well taken 357 :)

[NYRich]

I'm another guy who has given up attending professional sporting events. Baseball has always had a special place in my life. Growing up with the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants only a subway ride away can do that. Especially when there were guys like "Willie, Mickey and the Duke" to argue about.

Even though I grew up in Brooklyn, I've always been a Yankees fan. Yet, I haven't been to a game in about 5 years and still haven't seen the new stadium (I live 15 minutes away). They've simply priced me out of the market. I've done the math and a good box seat, a couple of hotdogs and beers is now about a day's pay for the average worker. Paying that kind of money to watch some guy hitting .250 who makes more in a year than I will in a lifetime just doesn't appeal to me.

[The Deacon]

For me, the realization that baseball was not really a sport, just a business came when the Dodgers left Brooklyn. I totally lost interest in it sometime thereafter. Can honestly say that, prior to this thread, if anyone had offered me a million dollars if I could tell them what Albert Pujols did for a living, I'd have walked away empty handed.

[Mojo51]

As I die hard Cubs fan. Thank god he's gone and in the American league. That guy is a beast at the plate. The Cardinals have two world series championships in the past 6 years. We haven't had one in over a hundred years.

[flash900]

This video unearthed recently in Berlin --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-zgYXjBb9Y

[Sequimite]

Fantastic job. Now all I have to do is link to that video.

I really liked the original movie.