Albert Pujols | The Baseball Zealot

St Louis and Baseball

A shot of Busch Stadium taken from the Arch

It’s been said before and I’m not going to deny it, St Louis is a baseball town.

I just spent two days there and though time prevented me from attending a ballgame, it’s obvious that St Louisans take the sport seriously. Throughout town, I saw countless families who were ALL dressed in Cardinal red. Dad, Mom, kids, everyone.

“Albert Pujols” and his mini-me

They always say they Chicago is lucky to have two major league ballclubs and I suppose that is true. The Sox and Cubs appeal to different audiences and draw well.

Coming from the Chicago market (I actually live three hours south), the concept of one city, one team is quite foreign. I have to admit it does sound quite appealing. Encountering a fellow baseball fan on the street, it must bring some solace and comaderie to know that chances are high that he’s rooting for your team and that FIVE is his favorite number too.

I zoomed in on the field. It looks like some of the ground crew were beginning to start work.

Albert Pujols plays second

If you haven’t haven’t heard already, Albert Pujols played second base today for the St Louis Cardinals. No, it’s not one of LaRussa’s crazy moves though when I first heard about this, that’s the first thing that crossed my mind. No, to put it simply, injuries forced the move. From MLB.comS:

The game ended with Pujols playing second base, the result of an injury to Cesar Izturis. The shortstop was hit by a pitch in the top of the ninth, and had to come out of the game. Because the Cardinals had only Yadier Molina left on the bench, Molina came in to catch, Jason LaRue played first base, Pujols moved from first to second and Aaron Miles moved from second to shortstop.

I got a few emails about this today. See, Albert is on my APBA league team and his appearance at second base today will allow me to do the same next year. Good.

In 2002, Pujols played two innings at shortstop so playing middle infield is not new. That said, he was lucky enough not to have the ball hit to him then. Apparently today, he had one total chance (and no error!).

Pujols’ elbow: Leaving it to God

This MLB report that just came out about Albert Pujols’ nagging elbow injury attempts to paint a rosy picture on his prospects for 2008.

As a Cub fan who has dealt with many reports of “rosy pictures” in past years, I’m dubious. And Cub fans, don’t hate me but I’m hopeful too. Phat Albert is the cornerstone of my APBA team.

Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but this kind of spin from MLB is reminiscent of politicians who one week say “We have no plans to (fill in unpopular action).”, then the next week do exactly that. When they come out to say to the baseball fans that a baseball injury is not THAT bad (the article is entitled Pujols’ Elbow Feeling Good), they may be just preparing us for the worst.

This snippet from Pujols was a little disconcerting.

“Do I need to be concerned? No. I don’t have any concerns, because it’s going to affect me thinking about it — I can’t do this or that. If it blows out, it’s going to blow out. You can’t control that. When God says it’s going to blow out, its going to blow out.”

Pujols opted against surgery on the elbow this off-season with the thinking that the benefit wouldn’t outweigh the downtime.

That said, as good as Pujols has been, he has shown a noticeable decline in offensive numbers in the last couple years. At some point, elbow surgery may worth it.

Divine intervention can only do so much.