So is La Russa talking out of his rear end? Of course he is. But remember it was the union that killed ARod to the Red Sox so as not to allow a precedent to be set that a player could devalue his contract. ARod wanted to go to Boston, where was the union standing up for Alex playing where he wanted to play?

He wants Pujols to play for him and knows the Cards don’t have the scratch to resign him. Maybe he should focus more on clever strategies, like batting the pitcher eighth.

The way it should be, La Russa contended, is that a player in Pujols’ position should “look at all the factors. … It shouldn’t just be the most money.”

“I’ve had a number of players over the years who took the [most] money,” La Russa said, “and they’ve regretted it later.”

What he said was, the union shouldn’t be pressuring Pujols to do something he doesn’t want to do, and let him make his own decision.

Sounds like pretty good advice to me. Maybe people should stop condemning LaRussa just because they don’t like him, and actually look at the facts of what was said. LaRussa also never said Wiener was the one who did it.

He said the union did. Is the union Wiener, or is it the collective of players?

Deal with the facts of the issue as they really are, not what you want them to be.

That said, does anyone believe that this giant man is going to continue to be at the top of his game in five years? I think that the Cardinals are going to let him walk rather than be held hostage the way the Giants were by Barry Bonds. I hate to see them lose such a great player (yeah right, I’m a Cubs fan), but almost no team could afford to risk so much on one guy. Eight or ten years is an absurd length for a professional sports contract.

Not to take anything away from Tony LaRussa (or Steve Young or anyone else with a law degree that doesn’t practice) but he isn’t a lawyer. He’s a professional baseball manager. Having gone to law school does not make someone a lawyer. Passing the bar and practicing law does.

And not all lawyers are dirtbags. Just the ones you don’t want to like. Don’t hate the player – Hate the game.

Bottom lime is that Weiner, La Russa, and Boras are all lawyers, and they’ve been trained to lie. I don’t trust any of them. (Good post Craig. )

Boras is right about this – the union is worried about players having the freedom to do what they want, not about whether a particular free agent (or prospective free agent) gets a particular contract. They never get involved in free agent negotiations.

Somehow I missed that. That’s they only way he could be a hypocrite in this particular situation.

I think too many people are confusing their dislike for LaRussa with what he said. It’s two different things.

Whether anyone likes LaRussa or not, his comments should be taken for what he said, not what peoples personal opinion of him his.

Now, taking for granted I’m an idiot, wasn’t the issue that the union was getting other players to talk to Sabathia, so as not be caught being the bag man?

If that was true, then Wiener saying he hasn’t spoken to Pujols or his agent doesn’t really matter. The head of the union not actually doing it himself doesn’t mean there might not be some truth to the story. They’ve been accused before. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Sometimes.

If Wiener would come and say that no one in the union has spoken to Pujols, or no one at the behest of the union has spoken to them, then I would be willing to believe it. Until I hear that, I would have to think there might be some truth to it.

Also, what was Boras’ point about the representation thing? Is LaRussa questioning Pujols’ right to have an agent, or to negotiate? I don’t remember reading anything about that, and LaRussa’s statment that Pujols was being pressured really has nothing to do with who he is represented by, or how.

Sounds like Boras twisting the statment to make it sound like what he wants it to. I never thought that could happen.

In a totally unrelated note, are there ever going to be tags for the posts again? Those were/are 100 times cooler than thumbs up/thumbs down for comments!