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He could be a really cheap hire since he is already on the payroll for the next seven years.
P.S. Also pointing out that a non-Angels team wanting to hire Albert now would likely have to pay him $7 MM just to cover him having to opt out of his personal services contract. No thanks!
Wondering if Arte Moreno will count Albert Pujols' $1MM annual personal services contract against his managerial salary? Or will Albert get to double-dip?
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) October 1, 2025
Maybe Yadi could work from home. Use a lot of cameras and video feeds. Its not the old days anymore.
Albert, 44, served as hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals and joined the Mets in 2022. New York’s farm system is teeming with good young bats, and the plan is to have Albert run hitting at the major league level and complement him with another hitting coach, sources said.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 14, 2025
The coaching system sure has changed over the years. There was a time not so long ago that a team had a manager and four coaches. Coaches were pitching, hitting first and third base. There was a year or two there where Topps and maybe Bowman back in the day had cards that showed the manager and 3 or 4 coaches on them.
Now in that comment about Jeff Albert, he will be at the big league level as a hitting coach, and the Mets plan on hiring another hitting coach as well. Plus you have your traditional first and third base coaches, an outfield coach, the tried and true pitching coach, and a bench coach. I think there are also guys who focus on technology and perhaps base running as well.
What the heck does the bench coach do anyway? He’s sort of a “manager in training”, and I guess a guy for a manager to bounce thoughts off of. But it seems like an unnecessary position – probably someone in the “Department of Redundancy Department” came up with the bench coach idea.
Connor Thomas apparently was not in the Cardinals future plans, or they would have claimed him via the Rule 5 rules.
The early off-season roster moves have begun. Connor Thomas has cleared waivers and elected free agency..
— Curt Hogg (@CyrtHogg) October 23, 2025
If not for the WS game 6 debacle, that ’85 Redbird team would have been placed into the books as one of the best ever. That entire ’85 regular season battle for the NL pennant with the veey talented but hated NY Mets team was classic hard-nosed Big League baseball at it’s best. It’s just a shame that those Redbirds couldn’t quite lay claim to a WS championship. Yeah, it was a lousy call at 1B but when a team hits a collective .185 in a 7 game WS, most times they’re going to be wear the title of runner up.
I agree 1TD. The ’85 team was my favorite team and one of the best Cardinal teams to ever lace them up. The ending was unfortunate but lady luck turned the tables for us in 2011 to make up for it.
Thanks for the wonderful 1985 Cardinals Reunion video, Brian! Boy, with the exception of Ozzie and Ricky Horton, I would hardly recognize the other ’85 Birds, as their appearances have so drastically changed. Especially Tommy Herr. Have we all changed that much? I don’t know about you guys, but when I look in a mirror……any mirror, I still see a smiling, good looking, dare I say “suave”, 28 year old Pugs.
Mad Dog wasn’t able to come to terms with the Rangers to stay with Skip. He is going to the Angels instead.
Mike Maddux won't be back with #Rangers in 2026. Team confirms. Sources say he's headed to Angels. pic.twitter.com/lhytKy90rW
— Jeff Wilson (@JeffWilsonTXR) October 31, 2025
Yeah. that ’85 Cardinals tribute was great! I am surprised Jack Clark and Andy Van Slyke were not part of the panel. They are both familiar with media and have talked a lot in public.
Next year I am looking forward the biggest tribute of all – the 100 year celebration of the first modern era Cardinals championship. Man, reaching the century mark in anything is something special.
I did a road trip in June of ’85. I actually had an interview with Mike Bertani of the Cardinals, as I was lobbying for a career in the accounting/finance area of a professional sports organization. He was real nice and brutally honest, and needless to say did not hire me. 🙂
But on that trip I went to Chicago and saw two games of the three game series with the Cubs. We swept that series, with Danny Cox pitching a great game to win the Sunday game 2-0. I then went to St. Louis for the interview and saw a series against the Phillies, and then the Cubs again. It was around the time we started to gel and really play good baseball. One game against the Phillies was sort of a deja vu as Steve Carlton started for the Quakers. But this was a Carlton on the downside of his career, not the dominant Lefty I saw as a teenager in ’72 who totally shut us down. We knocked him around pretty good in ’85.
After the last game I saw the scoreboard has a message something like “With tonight’s win the Cardinals are now in first place.”
As others have said, it was a special time. Oh, and later that summer I saw a double-header in San Diego, and we won both games.
The infamous Denkinger call really stung. I have said this a few times here, but I was watching that game on TV and when the play happened I yelled “OUT!”. When Denkinger signaled safe I couldn’t believe it, as you could see Orta’s foot was still a good “foot” in the air when the throw arrived. There were closer plays than that where umps got it right, and that one looked relatively easy. But like Tommy Herr said in the video. with all the weird movements and players moving about there was a lot of distraction. I think Denkinger got caught up in the moment and had that exact play occurred in St. Louis he would have signaled out. I know he would have never admitted to that and maybe that is off base, but it seemed like he got kind of caught up in things. And like the guys said, he should have asked another ump to see if there was some doubt about the call.
And like the guys said, he(Denkinger) should have asked another ump to see if there was some doubt about the call.
The left field line ump could have called that play more accurately than Denkinger. And you’re absolutely correct BicycleMike, if that very play was in St. Louis instead of K.C., Denkinger raises the right thumb towards the heavens and Orta trots off the field with a huge frown on his mug. Too bad they didn’t have instant replay in ’85, as we’d have an additional WS banner waving from high up in the stadium rafters.
We would still have neeed to get two more outs in that ‘85 game, but all of us who were watching that night could feel the momentum change with that play. It just felt like had Denkinger got it right, we had the Royals down for the count. But with the safe call, they hit us with a low blow and we were dazed just a bit.
I thought so too, Bikemike. I thought the entire team lost their concentration. Clark and Porter looked at one another as they failed to record the first out on an easy foul popup that gave another chance to Balboni. There was a PB that allowed baserunners to move up to 2B and 3B. The team literally fell apart. And they still had another game the next night to atone for the game 6 debacle and were annihilated in game 7. No excuses. They simply weren’t quite good enough to secure a WS championship that season.
Fifty-seven years ago today, November 13, 1968, Bob Gibson was named the MVP of the National League. Four days ago, this monumental figure in #STLCards history would have celebrated his 90th birthday. Paul Lore shares the legacy of the late Hall of Famer. https://t.co/u5Szvd23U4 pic.twitter.com/T7dMhrZkXc
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) November 13, 2025
We would still have neeed to get two more outs in that ‘85 game, but all of us who were watching that night could feel the momentum change with that play. It just felt like had Denkinger got it right, we had the Royals down for the count. But with the safe call, they hit us with a low blow and we were dazed just a bit.
Agreed. The air was taken out of the team and we were flat as a pancake for Game 7.
A decade earlier the 1975 Reds suffered a famous loss in Game 6 against the Red Sox but came back the next night to win Game 7.
Denkinger retired after that season and commented that his blown call helped him get booked on the offseason speaking circuit.
Hated to see the game taken away from the Cardinals by a crooked umpire. Glad that George Brett got a ring.
The Astros have designated Ramon Urías for assignment
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) November 18, 2025
I can’t believe I am defending Denkinger, but I don’t think there were any accusations that he was dishonest or crooked. He made a terrible call that unfortunately affected the outcome of the Series.
Anyone can make a mistake, but this guy (Denkinger) was a trained professional with a bird’s eye view of the obvious event……and he inexplicably blew the call. There was a reason why he did this…..and he took it to the grave with him.
The Boston Red Sox signed RHP Osvaldo Berrios to a minor league contract. pic.twitter.com/OZ01amrd8l
— MLB Roster Moves (@MLBRosterMoves_) November 21, 2025
Rays Sign Jake Woodford To Minor League Deal https://t.co/sIhTXi72K0 pic.twitter.com/b2OiMbLO6V
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) November 21, 2025
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