Sitting in ridiculously good box seats on the first base line Tuesday night LeBron James’ name got brought up more than once.
Why?
Mr. James will become a free-agent after next season. His basketball skills and acumen are unparalleled by any player past or present in the NBA. And every single team in the NBA would trade every single man on their roster to start fresh with the middle of his prime LeBron anchoring every single aspect of their franchise.
The NY Knicks have virtually admitted that they don’t care about how you play this year or the next… as long as your contract expires after 2010… welcome to the Garden! Other teams such as the Miami Heat and NJ Nets are also eyeing King James with more than your passing furtive glance.
Cleveland knows this.
They have been scared to death of 2010 since they drafted Mr. James. And now that his time to enter the unrestricted free agent pool has drawn nearer they’ve basically said “LeBron… what do you need? We’ll do it. Just don’t leave!”
In the next month Mr. James and the Cleveland Cavs will be playing in the NBA Finals and many NBA pundits have it on good authority that he will not only consider coming back to Cleveland to play… it’s actually more than likely he’ll come back to Cleveland to play. They’ve surrendered to the ultimate star and realized that once he’s gone no amount of draft picks, free-agents or other can ever- EVER- replace what he does for the team/franchise/city/state. They’ve acted responsibly on behalf of their fans.
Cut to St. Louis.
Busch Stadium Tuesday night had a paid attendance listed at 34,000 plus change. Coming back from an 8 day break and playing the hated NY Mets brought, in my estimation, around 30K worth of the best fans in baseball to the stadium.
And even though the Cardinals resided in a virtual tie for first place and even though they pulled out a nice come-from-behind win… the fans gave a distinct vibe that reeked of “we might be OK, but we’re not going to win anything with this bullpen”.
That may or may not be a fair statement.
But what is absolutely certain is that Albert Pujols is going to be heading out onto the field the rest of this season picking up the same vibe. Indexing games and front office comments and trade deadline deals (or lack thereof) and about 1,000 other variables to try and decide if he wants to negotiate a long term deal after the season or not.
Here are the facts… Mr. Pujols will be a free agent after the 2011 season (the last year being a club option). Generally speaking, it’s not in the best bargaining interests of any employer to wait until the last minute to get a huge deal done. They will need to sign or trade Mr. Pujols in the next 1.80 seasons to obtain fair market value and/or trade value.
But here’s the rub.
His value to the team/ city/ franchise is pretty much invaluable. As a fan, I momentarily tried to picture El Hombre coming to bat for an opposing team in Busch Stadium and I literally got sick to my stomach. Seriously. I got a feeling that you get when your pet dies or when you know you’re about to be laid-off. It was awful. And then I see the empty seats, which, if you want to be symbolic, are the empty promises to shore up weaknesses that the Cardinals have made over the past several years that never materialized.
Foolishly, I hope Albert isn’t noticing, isn’t taking mental notes. But he is. He’s too good not to. The Cardinals still have time. But starting this season the only person that should treated to an unmentionable reverence is Albert Pujols.
Give him what he wants. Make the big guy happy. Do what the Cavs did for Mr. James.
And do it now.
Topics: Albert Pujols, Civic Pride, Contracts, Free Agents, LeBron James
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Fellow Cardinals fans, please join me in enjoying the remiander of is contract. I believe he will be the first 300 million dollar man in baseball.
Arod can already get 300 million ih he gets the incentives
penis
[...] Albert Pujols is LeBron James Baseball Digest Posted by root 11 minutes ago (http://baseballdigest.com) Apr 23 2009 as long as your contract expires after 2010 welcome to the garden comment by tommy buettner on 1 may 2009 washington nationals wax statues wayne granger wayne housie yale bulldogs yang joon hyeok yankee box score 4 11 09 powered by wordpress s Discuss | Bury | News | Albert Pujols is LeBron James Baseball Digest [...]
Bad journalism. LeBron IS Albert, what? Seriously? Nobody will know til its in the St Louis Post Dispatch. You don’t know, I don’t know, get over it.
PS. Albert is probably 100 times the person LeBron is integrity wise.
Poor journalism.