On February 22, I posted a blog on Albert Pujols ridiculous demand for the Cardinals to award him a ten year, $300 million deal to give him the highest payroll in baseball and place him on the lone pedestal as the best player in the majors.
St. Louis scoffed at this asinine deal, and instead offered $200 million over eight years. Pujols walked away, talks ended, and the season began.
But despite the looming contract dispute, Pujols legend soared in 2011. He recovered from a wrist injury that ended Cliff Floyd’s power hitting career. He led an impossible, late season surge that’s carried his team past the favored Phillies and Brewers to game six of the World Series.
Now, the red birds find themselves down three games to two with the real possibility tonight could be the last time Pujols dresses in Cardinals red, and St. Louis fans from Memphis to Kansas City are shaking in their boots. Pressure is building to the extent that the Cardinals front office just might cave and give their beloved first baseman the respect/money he wants.
But it would be a mistake.
After a 31 percent ratings drop a year ago, this year’s fall classic is on pace for the fewest TV viewers ever. Even with the NFL putting out the two worst games of the season at competing times, Sunday’s game four earned a 9.1 while game five the following night dropped to an 8.8. Compare this to the 24 million for game six of this year’s NBA Finals.
Major League Baseball is in very real decline.
However, players like Pujols and Prince Fielder seem oblivious to this, and are unrelenting in their desire to one up the last contract to prove their worth. Whether it’s agents, the players’ union, or the players themselves, somehow the message of baseball’s declining popularity is lost in all the zeroes of their contract demands. But when the ratings for game seven of NHL Finals is creeping closer to “America’s pastime”, surely someone can see the writing on the wall.
But even in the post Moneyball era, haven’t baseball executives learned their lesson that the biggest contracts rarely equate to titles? Or increased fan support? Or more revenue?
The inept Boston Red Sox are a prime example. In an attempt to build a team Bostonians would endear themselves to, the Red Sox betrayed what made their fans so devoted. They tried to buy their heroes, plucking from small markets San Diego and Tampa. Instead, they ended up with apathetic, overpaid players who imploded the team and disgusted the fan base.
Howard Bryant’s October 25 article brought to light this conflict facing the Cardinals organization.
“For all his comfort and the public’s love for him, it is unclear how strongly Pujols identifies with being a St. Louis Cardinal, especially in a time and culture when money-- top money and nothing more-- often equals respect.”
I will probably never meet Albert Pujols. I’ll never know his intentions or personality or drive beyond what I see on the field and read online. However, it seems he is not interested in being the hero for the St. Louis faithful. He intends to squeeze every penny out of baseball he can, no matter the effects it has on the long term viability to the league.
Someone needs to remind Albert (and every other professional athlete for that matter) that heroes pay the bills. Every sports team on Earth operates on the principle.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
TCU to the Big 12
I was really looking forward to the TCU/Providence basketball rivalry.
In a move that should have happened years ago, the Texas centric Big 12 finally extended an invitation to Texas Christian University. Bucking the recent trend, the Horned Frogs are making this decision, as Ivan Maisel wrote, “because of geography, tradition and history, rather than in spite of them.” Go figure.
TCU’s move to the Big East was laughable when it happened, but everyone in college athletics knew why. If football is the cash cow for universities, then TCU has a prize winning heifer with no blue ribbons. The move to the Big East was a desperation move to cash in on their success, regardless of how it affected their basketball/Olympic sports.
Now, their women’s volleyball team can drive five hours to Lubbock instead of boarding a plane for New Jersey or Connecticut.
As absurd as TCU’s jump to the Big East seemed, it’s a part of life for smaller college programs. Louisiana Tech is forced to partner with Idaho, Hawai’i, and two California schools in an attempt to keep pace with the rest of college football. Ironically, the Bulldogs are sacrificing their other sports to cater to football, whose revenue makes the other sports possible.
Money, as always, drives these illogical moves that make a mockery of the NCAA’s definition of a student athlete. When football teams are competing for millions of dollars that accompany a spot in a contrived “national championship”, or the honor of playing in bowl games that serve the corporations that sponsor them more than the school, it’s difficult to continue calling them amateurs.
Actually, it’s downright disgraceful.
The entire system looks more and more like a snobby fraternity. The big successful schools are in, and the smaller peons have to prove they’re worthy enough to be a part of the club. Boise St., TCU, and Utah have been on the outside looking in despite wins over Alabama, Oklahoma, Georgia, Virginia Tech and Wisconsin. Utah and TCU are finally cool enough, but Boise apparently still has some shaping up to do.
It’s hard not get cynical with all this. TCU will make the Big 12 stronger and may save the conference from the brink. Utah to the Pac-12 helps both the conference and the university. But when TCU’s announcement headline is accompanied with their 15 year wait to be reunited with the other major Texas schools, it makes the invitation seem condescending and belittling.
I’m not advocating for major conferences to become non-profits, but the BCS system these schools operate in has become so unfair it’s sickening.
I know this rant will join a long list of others against the absurdity of the BCS, but sooner of later someone has to start listening... right?
In a move that should have happened years ago, the Texas centric Big 12 finally extended an invitation to Texas Christian University. Bucking the recent trend, the Horned Frogs are making this decision, as Ivan Maisel wrote, “because of geography, tradition and history, rather than in spite of them.” Go figure.
TCU’s move to the Big East was laughable when it happened, but everyone in college athletics knew why. If football is the cash cow for universities, then TCU has a prize winning heifer with no blue ribbons. The move to the Big East was a desperation move to cash in on their success, regardless of how it affected their basketball/Olympic sports.
Now, their women’s volleyball team can drive five hours to Lubbock instead of boarding a plane for New Jersey or Connecticut.
As absurd as TCU’s jump to the Big East seemed, it’s a part of life for smaller college programs. Louisiana Tech is forced to partner with Idaho, Hawai’i, and two California schools in an attempt to keep pace with the rest of college football. Ironically, the Bulldogs are sacrificing their other sports to cater to football, whose revenue makes the other sports possible.
Money, as always, drives these illogical moves that make a mockery of the NCAA’s definition of a student athlete. When football teams are competing for millions of dollars that accompany a spot in a contrived “national championship”, or the honor of playing in bowl games that serve the corporations that sponsor them more than the school, it’s difficult to continue calling them amateurs.
Actually, it’s downright disgraceful.
The entire system looks more and more like a snobby fraternity. The big successful schools are in, and the smaller peons have to prove they’re worthy enough to be a part of the club. Boise St., TCU, and Utah have been on the outside looking in despite wins over Alabama, Oklahoma, Georgia, Virginia Tech and Wisconsin. Utah and TCU are finally cool enough, but Boise apparently still has some shaping up to do.
It’s hard not get cynical with all this. TCU will make the Big 12 stronger and may save the conference from the brink. Utah to the Pac-12 helps both the conference and the university. But when TCU’s announcement headline is accompanied with their 15 year wait to be reunited with the other major Texas schools, it makes the invitation seem condescending and belittling.
I’m not advocating for major conferences to become non-profits, but the BCS system these schools operate in has become so unfair it’s sickening.
I know this rant will join a long list of others against the absurdity of the BCS, but sooner of later someone has to start listening... right?
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