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Interesting. The “21 year old” Pujols of 2001 did seem to be ahead of his time. And the current Albert seems older than 38. There is certainly a strong case to put Albert at 40.
Great career, great guy. His career and the Cardinals are similar to rocker George Harrison in a way. Harrison noted that the best thing to ever happen to him was becoming a Beatle, and the second best thing was getting out when the Beatles broke up.
For the Cardinals of recent times, the best thing to happen was drafting Albert. The second best thing was him signing with the Angels after the 2011 season.
I’ve always wondered, once you’ve got over $200 million, how much better can you make your life with $20 million or $30 million more?
Never having been faced with a comparable situation, I can’t really say. But it seems to me that if the happiness and comfort are tied to the highest possible number of dollars in Pujols’ mind, then he did the right thing. Like millions of others, I would have preferred that he choose history, love and loyalty over a few million more. But as it turned out, those are not things that were important to him. In light of that, he made the right decision. He’s gone. And in retrospect, I’m glad – for him and for the St. Louis Cardinals.Not to beat a dead horse, but this video shows a prime reason why Pujols’ batting average has declined. An infield chopper deep in the hole, fielded by the second baseman on the grass far to the third base side of the bag, bobbled by the fielder, followed by a one-hop throw to first that still beat Albert.
Edit: On review, I don’t think the second baseman bobbled the ball, after all. He knew from experience to eat the ball when fielding it that late rather than throw to first, risking an error on a play with no chance anyway. He then looked up and saw how slowly Albert was moving up the line and changed his mind to make a quick throw.
You changed my way of thinking on this topic, Brian. But I still find it hard to imagine Albert not hitting .300 in St. Louis. Concerning Albert’s age, lying about it probably weighed very heavy on his mind….getting caught. I know this first hand. I met this super attractive older woman shortly after finishing college. Right off the bat I told her I was 25 when I was only 22. She was 35 at the time. I guess I figured my chances were better with her if our age differential wasn’t so wide. I never dreamed that I would end up living with her for the next 6 years. Keeping that secret was emotionally very taxing. Always hiding my ID and stuff. I look back now and wonder what in blazes I was doing. Anyway my point is that Albert most likely was always on edge, hoping that his real age would never be discovered. It had to adversely affect his play to some degree.
And there we have the difference between Pugs, and many of our heroes of World War II. Our heroes lied about their age, sometimes saying they were 18 or 19 rather than 17 in order to get into the military and fight for their country.
Pugs lies, adding three years to his age in order to have a better chance with an older babe.
albert goes 0fer tonight, still 5 hits away from 3k..
they have 4 games left in the homestand before they hit the road, youd have to wonder if he doesnt get it in these next 4 games if they bench him? Its not like they would be missing the offense!
Pujols is now at 2998.
It’s almost time to talk about “the elephant in the room.” Albert Pujols has 2,998 hits. #Angels https://t.co/hHBKRezJv0
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) May 3, 2018
Not sure where he is getting his fuel from, but Ken Rosenthal thinks coverage of Pujols has been demeaning.
It's time to stop demeaning aging Albert Pujols.@Ken_Rosenthal explains pic.twitter.com/UzWr3Ul8pa
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) May 3, 2018
OK, twitter has provided one example of a writer who has declared that Albert is very difficult to deal with. Albert is clearly not Lance Berkman, but some guys are just more comfortable with the media than others. He grew up as a player learning from Big Mac and TLR.
I'm gonna be honest: 20 years in this business, don't remember a pro athlete who regularly treated people with less base humanity and respect than Albert Pujols. Image never matched day-to-day reality.
— Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman) May 3, 2018
Coincidentally, TLR will be at Dozer Park on Saturday and among his acts will be to sign autographs. Perhaps you could bake him a cake? 😉
A very interesting coincidence.
Ichiro Suzuki and Albert Pujols both made their major league debuts on April 2, 2001. One stepped aside today; the other chases his 3000th hit tonight. https://t.co/SXUZZfH8lx
— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) May 3, 2018
Gotta think even if the Cards completely sucked fans would be pouring into Busch Stadium to support Pujols and witness history.
Albert Pujols is four hits short of 3,000 but there isn’t much of a crowd at Angel Stadium. pic.twitter.com/4ogEfiChUY
— Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) May 3, 2018
You bet they would, BlackHills. If Albert was within 5 hits of 3000, Cards fans would be rocking the house in hopeful anticipation. This is the quietest quest for an approaching 3000 that I’ve ever seen. Albert has to be missing Cardinal fans. In St. Louis he was a God. In LA, I bet barely 2 people out of 10 could pick Albert out of a lineup, while 7 out of 10 could most likely peg Heidi Fleiss.
– Funny stuff BicycleMike!
– We joke around about UCONN’s cakes, but for those of you who haven’t indulged, you don’t know what you’re missing. For those interested, UCONN will gladly email you her Cardinal cake catalog…. or “CCC” as she refers to it. Some are a bit pricey, but well worth the coin. Three of my favs are her 7 layer cake of Busch stadium for $149.99 and two others celebrating ex-Cardinal players. The Albert Pujols Angel Food cake and the Joe Kelly Boston Creme Pie for $39.99 a pop are great buys.I saw that the other night. It is a weekday game and he was 4 hits away from 3,000. Much better crowd tonight.
I don’t know anything about his interactions with the media. He seemed to be ok with the local media in STL postgame. COuld just be a writer or two just don’t like him.
As far as fan interaction. There was one guy on one of the old boards who got a photo with him on the street at an italian restaurant called Saputo’s in my hometown of Springfield IL. Can’t remember what he was doing there. I think his stepchild was attending a pretty well regarded special needs school ad he was looking for housing.
I love Albert as a player. Never saw Stan the Man play. Pujols was the best Cardinal I ever saw and for about a decade he was the best clean player in Baseball. He still should be at least top 3 in all time mvp votes IIRC.
So a New york writer who works in a state known for being obnoxious asses (New York) rips Pujols.BFD.I could give 2 sh*ts what a Clickbait NYscribe says.First Albert lies about his age? Now he is a nasty grumpy person?My GOD….stop the presses…….Reeks of desperation…grasping at anything to salvage readers.Belongs in trash with rest of the garbage…New York(blah)
Albert Pujols is the only player in major league history with 3,000 hits, 600 home runs and multiple World Series championships.
— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) May 5, 2018
Congratulations to Albert Pujols on 3000 Hits. Let's take a look at what 3000 hits looks like over time… Amazing! pic.twitter.com/rb7ka9viZZ
— Daren Willman (@darenw) May 5, 2018
That’s pretty neat, BW. And congrats to Albert!! Would have been cool if he had still been a Cardinals but I understand why he’s not and the team is better off for it.
Congrats to Albert. I have a cool vinyl record called “Stan The Man’s Hit Record”, that my dad got me when I was a kid. The record is essentially Stan’s advice to kids on how to hit. But it starts off with the KMOX broadcast of Stan’s 3000th hit, with the famous Harry Caray description going “There it is! There it is” There it is!”
Man, as a kid listening to that, you thought it was the equivalent of man landing on the moon.
Albert has been a truly great player. As Jack Buck chimed in on the broadcast of Stan’s 3000th, “I bet he’s glad that’s over, Harry”, I imagine Albert is glad to get the big 3-0-0-0 in the books and move on.
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