My friends and family will also (some of them begrudgingly) tell that I'm fairly liberal and usually take changes in stride. But when I heard that a part of my life that has been the same since I was a sophomore in high school was going to be different, it pissed me off. Albert Pujols will no longer play for the St. Louis Cardinals. I dropped an F-bomb as soon as I looked at my phone, especially since I expected my phone to tell me we had resigned him. As soon as the Marlins were out of the bidding, I felt secure that we would bring him back, probably for a stupid amount of money and years, but we'd bring him back just the same. And it wasn't my money, so I was somewhat okay with it. Especially since it would simply be Bill DeWitt Jr. paying for his mistake (not locking him up two or three years ago and not getting into this mess in the first place). But no, DeWitt decided it would be a better idea to let Alex Rodriguez sign a second insane contract. He decided to let Ryan Howard, a clearly inferior player on both offense and defense, a huge five-year deal. And he decided to let the Nationals sign an average (at best) player in Jayson Werth to a mega-contract. (He looks great on giant posters, though!)So while I dont' disagree with the Cardinals not matching the offer that the Angels made to Pujols, I'm still furious with them for allowing the situation to arise. And as John Hammond from Jurassic Park would say,"I don't blame people for their mistakes, but I do ask that they pay for them." Unfortunately, I can't count on DeWitt being eaten by a Dilophosaurus later on.
Dilophosaurus Attack by
Instead, I simply plan to not attend any Cardinals games in 2012. I'll still cheer for them. However, I've been saying since they failed to sign him before spring training, that if they messed up and didn't get Pujols to stay with the team, that I would not be attending any games the following season. I plan on sticking to my guns, just like the front office did on waiting to sign him until he was on the open market.
As for the Angels, they simply fall into a long list of teams that I hate: The Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Phillies, Brewers, Reds, Braves, and Mets. And now the Angels. At least it'll give my brother-in-law, Taylor, something to bond about. We didn't bond much during the World Series. Taylor's a Rangers fan.
