Albert The Great

I never thought I would write the word “disappointed” and the name Albert Pujols in the same sentence. But I was bummed that Pujols didn’t get one more hit at the right time during the regular season. If he had he wouldn’t have ended up with a .299 average, the first time in his career with the St. Louis Cardinals that he didn’t bat .300. And if he had he wouldn’t have ended up with 99 RBIs, the first time in his career that he didn’t reach 100.

Pujols began his Major League career in 2001 with 37 home runs, 130 RBIs, and a .329 average. He set a record by hitting at least 30 home runs, driving in at least 100 runs, and batting .300 for the first 10 years of his career and that one, lousy, measly hit that he didn’t get with a man on third sometime over the summer cost him the chance to do it for 11 straight years. He did hit 37 homers this year, so that streak is alive.

Yes, injury did cost Pujols some of his productivity, but the All-Star first baseman also got off to a terrible start when he had no physical complaints. He had a worse April than the U.S. economy. As a result, Pujols spent the entire rest of the summer catching up. He may be peaking now in the playoffs, which is to say that he is playing like the best player in baseball again. Monday night Pujols stroked four hits, a home run and three doubles, with five RBIs, as St. Louis battered Milwaukee 12-3. He reminded the world that he is a force of nature.

That didn’t surprise me. Pujols’ slow start did. What does it mean? Does it mean he is human, after all, just as he appears prepared to test the free agent market? Does it hint that at 31 he is starting to show signs of age? Given that April represented the biggest slump of his career, if you are someone with a seemingly endless line of credit at Bank of America, you have to ask if April was a fluke or was it foreshadowing a trend? As a fan I shudder to even raise that question, but I am not going to be the one shelling out Alex Rodriguez bucks to make Pujols the highest paid baseball player in world history.

Twice in the last year I have had personal Pujols sightings. On my first day in the Dominican Republic last November I stepped off the elevator in the lobby of my hotel…and there was Pujols, checking out and posing for pictures with the staff. I had just enough time to say hello and tell him that I admired his game before he disappeared into his waiting car. He was in the Dominican for a charity appearance and had hit 11 home runs in a softball double header the day before.

Months later, when the Cardinals were at the Cincinnati Reds, I had the chance to talk to Pujols after a game. Pujols is not an enthusiastic post-game talker these days, even after wins, and as his shower dragged on long enough to use up all of the hot water, most of the reporters ran for deadline. In the end, after waiting until he covered up a back and shoulders wider than the Grand Canyon with a dress shirt, I was the last sportswriter standing. Only when I spoke of visiting the Dominican did Pujols crack a smile. He wasn’t that interested in discussing his game-winning hit of the evening, but seemed to genuinely care when I said how much I had enjoyed my trip. It was like flipping a switch.

I would say if the Dominican had a Major League team that Pujols would like to sign as a free agent there. But that option doesn’t exist. He is otherwise a Missouri guy. He played two years of high school ball in Independence and played one year of junior college ball at Maple Woods Community College in Kansas City. Just about my favorite Pujols story was reading that he hit a grand slam and pulled off an unassisted triple play in his first game in JC.

Pujols’ entire Major League career has been with the Cardinals. He is deeply rooted in the community. His wife is from Missouri. If the Cardinals can make an offer anywhere near what Pujols considers fair, I doubt he will go to another team. I don’t sense that he has the vanity that requires him to sign the richest contract in history topping Rodriguez’s $25 million or so a year.

Certainly the Yankees will take a run at Pujols for the kind of money only megamillions lottery payouts rival. Maybe the Red Sox will, too. And could be the Phillies, after constructing the best starting rotation and being shocked by Ryan Howard‘s last-play-of-the-year Achilles tear, will find a way to get Pujols a Pat’s Steaks franchise and his own toll booth on the Ben Franklin Bridge. Does any other team have more money than Midas?

But here’s a sleeper, wild-card candidate. The Kansas City Royals have been saving money with low payrolls since George Brett retired and are considered to have the most talent-laden farm system in baseball, bursting with soon-to-be-ready players. Is it legal to give Pujols a percentage of the gate? I think baseball has a rule against that. The Brewers, at least, wish that Pujols would hurry up and go play somewhere else–like tomorrow.