A player like Albert Pujols only comes along once every generation or two! The Cardinals were fortunate to have drafted him and had him shine for 11 glorious seasons, but it is how they handle him as a free agent that will be remembered by Redbird fans and historians alike!

Put yourself in Albert’s shoes. If you had been the catalyst for your team for your entire career, had carried your team’s offense on too many occasions to count, has been selected the Most Valuable Player for the National League three times, had the highest lifetime batting average among active players, and had done everything humanly possible to endear yourself to the local fans and the city your team represents, would you expect your team’s General Manager and Ownership Group to do everything possible to re-sign you, or would you want them to wait until other teams made you an offer and then try to beat or maybe just match it?

As a lifelong fan of the Cardinals, I am absolutely APPALLED at the tactics being employed by Sr. V.P. and General Manager, John Mozeliak! He is negotiating like a penny pinching weakling! If this is an example of the true colors of Cardinal Management, I definitely would not blame Albert for signing elsewhere! Let’s remember that this franchise just won its 11th World Series Championship! Let’s let Albert know how very much we appreciate his excellent performance over the first 11 years of this career, and how much we want him to finish his illustrious career as a Cardinal!

Albert realizes that the Cardinals do not have unlimited resources. He wants the team to be able to afford to place the cast of talented teammates around him that is necessary to continue to be highly competitive and win more championships. Mr. Mozeliak and Mr. Dewitt, PLEASE make the best offer you can to keep Albert, and HAVE FAITH IN HIS INTEGRITY AND HIS LOVE FOR THE TEAM!!! I know deep in my heart that he will not disappoint you!

As a lifelong fan of the Cardinals, who absolutely loves Albert Pujols, both as a baseball player and a tremendous human being, I have given quite a bit of thought to what I think Albert should do now that he is a Free Agent. Simply put, I want all my friends, family, and fellow Cardinal fans to know that I really truly want Albert to do WHATEVER he thinks is best for him and his family, period! I will be quite sad if he leaves the Redbirds, but I will continue to follow his career and wish him all the success possible! I will be unbelievably happy if he plays out the rest of his storied career with the Cardinals and will continue to follow his career and wish him all the success possible!

I’M WITH YOU, ALBERT, WHATEVER YOU DECIDE!!!!

I just want to say that win or lose I am extremely proud of this year’s team. The way they have battled to win the Wild Card, overcoming injuries to many key players, and the way Tony has performed his magic with the bench players has been nothing short of superb! I was fortunate to have been able to see virtually all the games this year via mlb.tv on my laptop, and I have really gotten to appreciate the entire 25 man roster. I would vote to bring them ALL back next season. Too bad I am not weathy enough to help make that happen.

BEST OF LUCK, 2011 REDBIRDS! MY WISH IS THAT YOU WILL PROCEED ON ALL THE WAY AND BECOME THE 2011 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS! BUSCH  STADIUM NEEDS THAT 11TH FLAG!!!!!

As my team, the St. Louis Cardinals, currently with 74 wins and 65 losses, 8 1/2 games behind the Central Division leading Milwaukee Brewer begin the last three weeks of regular season play for the 2011 MLB season, one stops for a moment to reflect on what he really wants from his team. In my case, a lifelong Redbirds fan, here is what I came up with:

1. A team that plays EACH game with a REAL desire to win it.

2. A team that plays as a team and not as simply as 25 players each trying to advance their own careers at any cost.

3. A team where each individual member does his best to perform at his maximum effort EVERY day.

4. A team where each individual member truly wants the best for the team.

5. A team where each individual member strives EVERY day to improve.

6. A team where each individual member strives to help the other members reach their potential.

And how does my team, the 2011 Cardinals, rate according to my arbitrary set of criteria? I give this team a B+.

Here’s how I arrived at that score:

1. Tony Larussa’s primary objective for each and every game is to put his team in a position to win. This year I feel like he has done that about 90% of the time. His primary failing occurred early in the season when he stayed too long with Ryan Franklin as the closer, costing the team some very valuable wins. I respect his loyalty to Ryan, who always gave his best in my opinion, but I feel Tony lost sight of what was the best for the team as a whole.

2. The primary reason I rate the team as a B+ is that I don’t feel the team improved defensively as much as it should have, and I feel that our starting pitchers have also failed to improve and carry their share of the load.

Do I still love and ardently follow the Cardinals? YES Do I see signs of hope for this season and the future with this team? YES Why????

SEVERAL REASONS:

1. Skip Shumaker is my idea of what a real Cardinal should be. He always hustles, he takes each mistake hard, maybe a little too hard at times, but he does what is necessary to learn from that mistake. The steady rise of this batting average and his outstanding hitting for the second half of this season is indicative of his great work ethic. Also, his continued improvement as a defensive second baseman, and his willingness to play in whatever position Tony puts him, even as a reliever!

2. Albert Puhols, Matt Holliday, and Lance Berkman are all consummate professions, as is Yadier Molina. Each of them is an outstanding leader as well as a true team player.

3. David Freese, Jon Jay, Allen Craig, and Daniel Descalso are exciting young players who seem willing to to whatever is required to help the team win.

4. Kyle McClellan seems to be most valuable in the bullpen right now, although his heart is set on being a starter. He needs to fully understand that he needs to fill whatever role is best for the team at the time.

5. Kyle Lohse needs to listen more to Dave Duncan and have more heart. A pitcher needs to learn how to put his team into a position to win even when he doesn’t have his best stuff.

6. Jason Motte is becoming an extremely dependable reliever very well may develop into an effective closer.

7.Fernando Salas show great signs of being an effective reliever, as well.

8. Chris Carpenter, although getting older, still has the heart of a lion, and my belief is that he will be very effective in the next few years when supported by Adam Wainwright.

So what do I think we need to do to win this year? Play each game like it’s the 7th game of the World Series, as Tony suggests, and if everything goes just right, we will be successful, whether or not the Brewers choke down the stretch…

GO CARDINALS!!!!! IT IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL THAT WE RESIGN ALBERT, CARPENTER, AND SHUMAKER, AND IT WOULD BE GREAT TO PICK UP RAFAEL FURCAL AND LANCE BERKMAN ALONG THE WAY!!!!!

Today, August 21, 2011, I celebrate my 64th birthday. Earlier today, I commented to my youngest son, Paul, a big Cardinals fan, that the team was not doing a very good job of giving me what I would love to have – a sweep over our longtime rivals, the Chicago Cubs, and a chance to hold our own with the red hot Milwaukee Brewers. However, after being a devoted fan of the Cardinals my entire life, I must admit that  the Redbirds actually give me a birthday present EVERY time they take the field! Certainly it is more enjoyable when we win, but the Cardinals are such an important part of my life, indeed, such a big part of my family, that EVERYTHING they do, good and bad, affects my life.

Evidently the Redbirds do realize it is my birthday, though, since they are really hitting well tonight, like the great offensive team they are this season, and much better than they have done in recent games. Albert Pujols and John Jay have both homered once, and, one of my absolutely favorites, Yadier Molina, has homered twice. Whether we win tonight or not, I honestly have no control over, but I do know that win or lose I will receive a great amount of real joy just having the opportunity to watch my favorite team play, and I do my best to watch EVERY time they do…

As I sat at my Apple laptop this morning to check out the progress of my teams in ESPN’s Baseball Challenge, I have begun to realize what an important role Baseball plays and has always played in my life. It began as a young boy growing up in Shreveport, Louisiana. My father grew up on a farm during the depression and never had time to play baseball. However, during his late teen or maybe college years, he discovered the St. Louis Cardinals via KMOX radio. At that time the Cardinals were the only MLB team anywhere close to the south, and KMOX had a signal powerful enough to reach North Louisiana, where Dad lived and attended college – Louisiana Tech University, in Ruston, Louisiana. Although Dad was not much of a talker, unlike me, I imagine that listening to the Cardinals provided him an escape from the travails of everyday life during extremely bleak economic times in the 1930′s. Dad continued his love for baseball for the remainder of this life of 86 years (1917 – 2003). I have vivid memories of his watering the grass in our yard at each of the homes we lived at in Shreveport, our home  in Houston, Texas, where we lived from 1961 until Dad retired in 1982, and at their home in Monroe, Louisiana, where Dad lived the last 20 years of his life, and where my mother still lives – Mom turned 95 on May 19th this year (2011). Being a bean counter, or accountant to most of us, Dad had a special interest in following the Cardinals – He would devour every issue of the Sporting News, gleaning every tidbit he could about both the Cardinals’ Major League roster and all their minor league clubs. Basically he looked on the Cardinals as part of his family, and family was the most important thing in Dad’s life.

I guess after living amost 64 years (will be on August 21, 2011), I am in quite a few ways much like Dad. Although our personalities were completely different, me totally outgoing and loving people with Dad very quiet, seeming not enjoying many people’s company, we share the love of Baseball. And I am now beginning to realize it is the part that Baseball takes on as a part of my family that makes it so special to me. Yes, I love for the Cardinals to win, but, even when they lose, I have a special feeling for each player and the team as a whole. I seem to understand how each player feels, and, assuming I believe a particular player REALLY wants to do everything within his power and abilities to help the team win, there is nothing anyone can say to me that will cause me not to take up for this player, just like he was one of my brothers or my children.

Just this season, my youngest son, Paul, age 32, a police officer in the City of South Houson for the past six years, who is married and now has one son, Levi, who is exactly two months old today, has started to completely adopt the Cardinals as a part of his family, like Dad and me. Paul and his wife, Yessica, just recently switched from cable to Direct TV, and they watch virtually every inning of Cardinals’ games. He will text me and/or call me several times during most of the games, excitedly commenting on some great play one of our boys has made or looking for answers when things go badly. My hope is that Paul will continue his love affair with the Cardinals and Baseball, much like Dad and me. I can’t seem to get too much information about my Cardinal family – I watch as many innings as possible of their games on my iPad2 via MLB.TV, read every article on the Cardinals website, and win or lose, absolutely LOVE the team and every player and coach. Free Agency has been especially hard on me, as I find it difficult to let part of the family go when players are traded away.

This year I have started playing ESPN’s Baseball Challenge, which allows fans to put a toe in the water of Fantasy Baseball. It has been most enjoyable for me, as I select the players for my three teams while listening and watching the Cardinals’ games. I think this has definitely broadened my knowledge of the players in both leagues, and it certainly provides a source of relief when my Cardinals are struggling with the many travails of daily life in the Majors.

I definitely am looking forward to this afternoon’s game against the Reds, and to many more years with my family…