Let the games begin.
Superstar Albert Pujols has found his market value, and it is a reported $250 million over 10 years from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He shocked the sports world by taking the offer instead of a reported $215 million offer over nine guaranteed years from the Cardinals.
This will not be a happy day in St. Louis. Expect much wailing throughout the media, workplaces, homes, bars, and anywhere else baseball fans breathe. Also expect much of it to be irrational.
No fan can be happy about this. It’s bad news for the team in baseball terms. Very bad. It’s hard to explain to kids who have grown up hero-worshipping Albert Pujols. Lots of hearts are broken.
But the Pujols decision is the result of something known as the free-enterprise system, which traditionally is revered in the heartland of America. He put out a bid for his services, and selected the one that he felt was best for him personally and professionally.
This is not a social injustice. It’s a reasonable business decision.
In short order, we’ll be hearing cries of anguish all over St. Louis about what greedy rats Pujols and agent Dan Lozano have turned out to be, how he let Stan Musial down, and other assorted nonsense. Free enterprise be damned: This will become a morality play.
Also expect St. Louis Cardinals owner William O. DeWitt Jr. to receive some inital criticism for failing to get a Pujols deal done last year (or earlier), when it is believed by many that the slugger might have been signed for less. But whatever is said today, the sports press will close ranks quickly behind DeWitt: Pujols is gone, but DeWitt and the Cardinals are very much still here.
Here are some thoughts to keep in mind as this melodrama unfolds today:
• Pujols is not greedy, in the least, for taking his best financial offer. If a giant corporation like Emerson Electric or Anheuser-Busch put out a bid for its services, and it took the highest and best bid for an extra $35 million or so, no one would question its character or sense of morality or its “need” for a little extra money, regardless of whether it represented a speck on its balance sheet. Pujols, Inc., is a small company with a limited lifetime of earnings.
• The Cardinals are not greedy, in the least, for allowing themselves to get outbid. There is no doubt that the team was fortunate to have Pujols’ services for the past decade at bargain-basement prices by baseball standards, but it is absurd to suggest that they were therefore morally obligated to overpay him in the future. The free-enterprise system applies to the team, as well.
• Don’t waste time with agent-hating blabber. No doubt Lozano will be likened to Saddam Hussein on the sports call-in shows and so forth, but he is nothing more than Pujols’ employee. People who can’t bring themselves to be rejected by Pujols, the object of their longtime affection, will rationalize the situation by making Lozano the villain. He isn’t. Sports agents are not generally warm-and-fuzzy creatures, at least not publicly, but the tradition of blaming them for the decisions of their clients is beyond absurdity. Albert was the decider.
• Life will go on for the Cardinals. The most intriguing question is whether the team will spend or pocket the Pujols Dividend—the staggering $220 million or so that it might have invested in the superstar over the next decade. That should be the focus of the fan in short order, because the team could pick up at least two stars, or even Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder, right away if it takes the spending route. Or the owners could improve their bottom line by sitting tight, developing young talent while reaping the rewards that Albert and company brought them just a couple of months ago.
It’s a whole new ballgame in St. Louis. And to Albert Pujols, thanks for the memories.
And good luck.
SLM co-owner Ray Hartmann is a panelist on KETC Channel 9’s Donnybrook, which airs Thursdays at 7 p.m.
Commentary by Ray Hartmann
