Albert Pujols is the starting first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals. He has spent his first ten seasons with the team, and in the process collected three National League MVP awards and one World Series ring. According to ESPN, he has hit at least .300 with a minimum of 30 home runs and 100 RBIs for each of those ten seasons, which is the longest streak of its kind in the history of the game. To give perspective on the weight such a record holds, only two players have held streaks close to it, with Lou Gehrig having a nine season streak from 1929 to 1937, and Babe Ruth having a eight season streak from 1926 to 1933. Even those who are not avid fans should recognize the prestige of being in the same category as the Babe.
It is the productivity shown in these statistics mentioned above that has the media putting so much attention on the eight- time All Star. Pujols will begin this season as the last in his expiring seven- year $100 million contract. This salary, which is very hefty and appealing to us, is tied for only the 25th largest contract ever given to a MLB player, as according to www.mlbcontracts.blogspot.com. According to www.cbssports.com, when you examine the top 25 salaries for the 2010 season, Pujols isn’t even on the list. Pujols’ production in the past ten years has surpassed every other individual position player in the league, which raises the question: Shouldn’t he be making the most money? If players are paid according to their production as a player along with their overall value to the team, you would think so. Pujols has also been a huge spark for the St. Louis Cardinals and for the city of St. Louis. He was drafted onto the team and began his playing days right after the end of the Mark McGuire era, and resurrected a franchise during a time when they desperately needed someone to do so.
According to ESPN baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian, Pujols is looking for a contract in the range of $300 million over the course of 10 years. At the age of 31, this would have him playing till he’s 41 years old, which is considered to be in the retirement range for baseball. Although this may seem unreasonable to ask for, especially for a team that does not have the same fan base and income as the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox, there is legitimate reasoning behind such a request. The Yankees are in part responsible for the issue, setting the standard when they gave Alex Rodriguez a 10 year deal worth $275 million with incentives. Also as I previously mentioned, Pujols has been the most productive player in the majors in the last ten years, and in a business where you’re paid for your numbers, the argument has to be made that he deserves the most lucrative contract the sport has ever seen.
I feel pity for Albert Pujols. He has avoided the accusations of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs in a decade where so many of baseball’s once great heroes have been humiliated and brought out into the light for who they really are and what they have done. He not only avoided these accusations, but has won two Gold Gloves and six Silver Slugger Awards to go along with his aforementioned eight All Star appearances, three NL MVPs and one World Series ring. He has made a name for himself in a small city with a small market, especially in comparison to locations such as New York and Boston. Maybe he is taking in the sweet smell of knowing he could be the highest paid, but who could make a reasonable argument as to why he shouldn’t be? Or maybe he finally realized he’s not getting what myself and many of baseball’s finest analysts are saying he deserves. Either way just remember that when you see him on television, or hear about him on the radio, that he is not the typical greedy player who doesn’t care about the game anymore, but that you are getting your chance to see not only one of the greatest players to play the game, but that you’re looking at one of the few pure players left in major league sports. When asked by an ESPN correspondent what he is looking for, he responded with “What do I want? Hey, I want to be a Cardinal forever. That’s my goal.”
