Pujols
Wainwright (pending)

The team you see on the field now, that is the result of a well run organization. You are right, people come to see the players (and if you had paid any attention, you would remember me saying that exact same thing many times), but the collection of players on the field represent a process (which usually has little to do with owners and more to do with the program the GM has installed).

Again, I have repeated said that even the worst owner makes more money than the best player will during his career…..but that has little to do with how much the Cardinals are willing to spend on players. To me, that argument is more about owners begging the public for money to build/upgrade stadiums than it is about player spending. It is their business, they can spend money as they wish….just don’t come begging taxpayers for handouts. At this point in time they have one of the worst TV deals and they are paying off stadium debt. All I read in your post is “waaaaa, they won’t spend more money to keep the players I love”.

It should already be obvious to you that you were wrong about re-signing Pujols….and you are still bitching about it.

I think a lot of players, especially stars, find that they need an adjustment period between playing and coaching or doing front office work. Their entire life has been training and playing….then suddenly, they don’t do that anymore. It has to be hard.

The Cardinals have a long history of bringing back any player that wants to be involved. Their ST assistants are literally a cross section of Cardinal history. Of course Pujols would have been welcomed to try anything he was interested in trying, but there is no reason to commit to a 10 year contract to pay him to do something he had never done before 10 years before he would have been doing it. That is just….weird.

My point is Baseball is loaded. Load-Ed!!, as Ron White would say. Some franchises are wealthier, some more generous. Some have great TV deals, some only so-so, but even the lower market teams are pocketing hundreds of millions.

Never, I repeat, Never in the modern era has a MLB team been a financial failure, and Good Lord knows many have tried.

As I have said before, nobody goes to a game to watch an owner, own.

In Pujols’ own words (from 2010): “I know people talk about my contract, but when I signed my contract in 2003, 2004, whenever it was, people are talking about that now being a bad contract. But you know what? When I signed my contract back then, the Cardinals didn’t have to do that but they did it. And it was one of the best contracts at the time…..You can compare my contract now to Manny Ramirez, (Mark) Teixeira, A-Rod, whoever you want, and it looks bad, but you know what, they were free agents and I wasn’t. I only had three years in the league and the Cardinals pretty much did me a favor, signing me for $100 million.”

FYI, I know what I want to do the rest of my life. Some people do know what they want.

Again, no one that is 10+ years from retirement insists on a 10-year long personal services contract. No one. Sure, he could ask for such a thing, but he shouldn’t have been surprised that the Cardinals didn’t want to make a 20 year long commitment. No team does such things.

I get the impression that he though, “I’m Albert Fucking Pujols. You NEED me. You’ll give me everything I want or I’ll leave.” Well, bye. Enjoy living 1/2 your year away from your family. Being a relative no body in that town and never being the most popular player on your team again. But hey, enjoy having made $350M in stead of only “$310M, I’m sure that makes it all worth it.

A lot of people say they want to do something for the rest of their lives…that usually isn’t true, as they simply can’t anticipate how they will change through time….which is why no one signs life time contacts.

I don’t think there was a reason to commit to a post-career position when he obviously still wants to play for 10 years. What’s the rush? Why lock into a life-time deal that one or both sides may regret?

Teams sign a lot of guys to long-term deals, some work out in their favor, some do not….as soon as players like Vernon Wells start giving 75% of their pay back….I’ll be all for players like Pujols getting “backpay”. Can’t just have it one way.

I probably shouldn’t have this discussion with you.