ESPN mag’s “Recruiting Issue” reveals Pujols’s true motivation
Since at least February 2009, Albert Pujols led fans to believe that he wanted to be in St. Louis forever and that the only thing that mattered to him as far as his employer was concerned was being in a position to win. That of course was before he won his second World Series with the Cardinals. But now that Pujols has packed up for California, Sam Miller, writing in the upcoming Feb. 6, 2012 “Recruiting Issue” of ESPN The Magazine, reveals perhaps the true reason why the erstwhile Cardinal first baseman left the team that fulfilled his public goals:
[Angels' GM Jerry] Dipoto did call Dan Lozano, Pujols’ agent, about a week into the free agency period, just to find out what Pujols was looking for — due diligence, he says, but more of an afterthought. The conversation wasn’t about cash. Lozano told the Angels what Pujols wanted: to be on a team that would care deeply for his legacy. Well, shoot, Dipoto thought, we can offer that.
Well, shoot, the team with whom Pujols built his legacy in the first place didn’t care deeply about his legacy? Pujols’s implied obstinence here is patently ridiculous. That is, unless he knew that in St. Louis he had an appreciation for his legacy but had decided to leave anyway. From Dipoto’s telling, it’s as if going to a new team was a fait accompli to Pujols:
As the winter meetings began in Dallas in early December, Dipoto again contacted Lozano. “Danny was very up front about it. Albert wanted to be identified with, and tied to, his new organization and make that part of his legacy,” Dipoto says. “We realized Albert’s desires lined up with us. We wanted to have that kind of marriage. I don’t want to shortchange what Albert does on the field — it’s tremendous — but he does so much more off it.
The Cardinals didn’t officially tender an offer to Pujols until Dec. 6, according to Matthew Leach. So if Pujols was already speaking in terms of his hypothetical “new team,” he very well may have made up his mind without even knowing the Cardinals’ offer. Even after receiving the club’s 10-year, $220-million offer, Pujols — for whom the ESPN report notes that a no-trade clause was important — would’ve had enough material security: it’s hard to imagine that the Cardinals, who have doled out such clauses to Kyle Lohse, Matt Holliday, Carlos Beltran, Lance Berkman and Jake Westbrook like they were candy, would’ve balked at one for Pujols.
The more that Miller relates the tale of Pujols’s recruitment from the Angels’ point of view — and it’s a shame that he doesn’t include anything from the Cardinals’ perspective — it appears that Pujols was a needy and injured ego willing to respond to the cooing of a economiastic suitor. Miller goes on:
Moreno, Dipoto, Lozano, and Albert and Deidre Pujols set up a conference call Tuesday night. Money wasn’t mentioned. Rather, Moreno charmed Pujols by stressing the familial nature of the his club: the longest-tenured manager in the game, a stable roster of coaches, a homegrown core that included the recently extended Weaver.
…
“I only spend five minutes talking to or meeting a guy and I know pretty much,” Pujols said after he signed. “God has given me that wisdom. I don’t even know [Moreno], and he called me one of his partners. That means a lot.”
We’re happy that Pujols feels that he has been blessed with God’s wisdom. The Bible’s book of Proverbs, which contain much wisdom, warns against the flattery of what one might consider “newfound partners”: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend;profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” And given what we now know about Lozano, Pujols may be deceiving himself. In this another bit of wisdom is apt: “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool.”
Pujols needs, like all of us, to continue seeking wisdom. The more we read about what appear to have been his true motivations and their contrast with his public testimony sadly taints what was an otherwise productive and spectacular statistical legacy in St. Louis. As noteworthy as that legacy was, it unfortunately doesn’t go much beyond that.
January 29th, 2012 at 12:24 am
Albert would have been a defected player if he returned to the Cardinals. A man is probably the second best player i’ve witness on the Cardinals.I quess He and His family needed to be stroked for his abilities. His greatness does not need a “no trade clause”. If you are as great as you think you are, no team would trade you. I guess we read you wrong Albert, we were under the impression you could clearly see the love, admiration, and awe of your abilities throught the 3 million plus fans every year. We did not see it coming that you needed the same from the owners. They have a team to keep finacially a float for those three million fans not just one extremely gifted first baseman. It takes 25 players that are focussed and not always the most talented to win it all. I know the Cardinals can repeat if their head and attitude is right. That is what it takes to win it all. But to albert, i pray that you stay healthy and set records which will stand a hundred years.GOD Bless
January 30th, 2012 at 11:36 pm
One minor point–the Cards wouldn’t have had to give him a no-trade clause since he would have been a 10 and 5 man with them.
That said, I agree with what you have here. I thought that the article (as painful as it was to read, rehashing the whole thing) didn’t necessarily paint Pujols in the best light. You’d think that a team that was for all intents and purposes named “the Pujolses”, a team that has proven that they know how to honor the past, would be a team that could be trusted with his legacy. To say otherwise is pretty foolish.