Pujols Knows Where Everybody Knows His Name

Two great bits of news reported about El Hombre today.

Great news for Cardinal fans, that is...

First, Pujols announced that he will almost certainly not compete in the World Baseball Classic next month. Everyone listen quietly and you can hear the sound of the Cardinals' front office collectively exhale. Here's what Albert had to say about it:

"Obviously it's always good to represent the Dominican Republic. I've already done it once. I need to make sure everything goes the right way... My main priority is here, to make sure that I'm ready for my season."

That is great news to hear as I would rather Pujols have as much time as possible to recover from his right elbow surgery in October. I would worry about him overexerting himself and injuring that elbow again before the season is even underway.

The next piece of Albert news on Sunday will put a smile on every Cardinal fan to hear. I'll let you hear it straight from Albert:

"Do I want to be in St. Louis forever? Of course. People from other teams want to play in St. Louis and they're jealous that we're in St. Louis because the fans are unbelievable. So why would you want to leave a place like St. Louis to go somewhere else and make $3 or $4 more million a year? It's not about the money. I already got my money. It's about winning and that's it... It's about being in a place to win and being in a position to win. If the Cardinals are willing to do that and put a team (on the field) every year like they have, I'm going to try to work everything out to stay in this town."

I think that last part was a little 'wink, wink' to DeWitt and Mozeliak to loosen the strings on the coin purse. The part I liked to hear most was the money situation. I was very worried about the Cardinals not having the ability to match the amount of cash teams like New York or Boston could offer. $4 million a year is not worth it for Pujols to leave the Cards.

So if the Birds offer Pujols a ten year, $260 million contract and the Yanks offered him a ten year, $300 million contract; Pujols would opt to remain a Cardinal.

I have known forever that this is how players feel about playing in St. Louis. It just makes me happy to hear a star actually say it every once in a while. It's almost as if the fans appreciation for the team helps the Cardinals' dollar go further on the market. It pays off to support and appreciate your team. (Take that Philadelphia. They may love you now, but wait til next year when you don't win it all.)

Pujols went on to discuss the false allegations from the New York televsion station, WNBC, that reported he was listed in the Mitchell Report. (See any irony? Spent too much time falsely accusing other teams stars and didn't see the one right under their nose.) Pujols gave a Sunday mini-sermon as his response:

"I always say, (with) people saying things about me and think I'm doing crazy things, whatever is in the dark is going to come in the light. I'm a big believer of that. It's in the Bible. I can fool all you guys but if I'm hiding something it's going to come to the light. God will show that. I told you guys already, I fear God too much for me to do any stupid things in this game. Not all the people think like that, and that's what's so sad."

Amen, Bro. Albert. A-Rod: I hope you had your listening ears on; that last line had your name all over it. If anyone out there still doesn't believe this guy is clean, you must have some major trust issues. If he was on steroids and gave the above speech, he would've been hit by lightening two seconds later. And reports show Pujols was definitely not hit by lightening. So haters, there's your proof.

Anyway, that's all I have for today kids. For your homework, if you have any questions you would like answered, just leave them in the comments section and I will get you your answer.

Goodnight all.