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Thoughts? I’m not sure in exactly what capacity (investor, spokesperson, etc) Pujols is involved. FWIW Steve Nash is involved in Vancouver’s bid to get a team, as a minority ownership position. Nash’s brother plays for the Canadian National Team and is a member of the Vancouver Whitecaps, a USL franchise (sort of like AAA for soccer).
Interesting. Do you have a link?
Despite his prickly and somewhat arrogant personality, Pujols seems like a guy who’s trying to do some good stuff (like the Pujols Family Foundation, which does work for kids with Down Syndrome, among other things). I’m sure his involvement in the MLS is motivated partly by business interest, but probably also by a desire to bring something positive to the area. I’m not a soccer fan, but I’d like to see my hometown score a team.
Here’s a link with more from the St Louis Post-Dispatch. Steven Goff’s soccer blog in the Washington Post was my original source. Not much more there right now.
If he can make a buck, bring something to the community and be involved in something he loves that goes beyond his on field stuff, more power to him. It’s pretty much knowledge among soccer folks that St. Louis is a city rich with soccer tradition. I hope that they can get a successful franchise in place there. IMO it’s long past due.
Cool. Thanks. Like I said, I’m not really into soccer, but I kind of had the sense that St. Louis had a soccer tradition. Wasn’t there a movie a couple years ago, The Game of Their Lives or something, about a soccer team in St. Louis? The father of a good friend of mine was a soccer standout for St. Louis U in the 60’s. He harbored thoughts of a pro career when he got back from Viet Nam. Unfortunately, he tore up his knee over there. Dunno if the idea of going pro was ever realistic, but still a sad story.
So the top 4 AL MVP vote getters were form two teams. Kinda interesting.
That was a movie about a rag tag bunch of players, mainly from St Louis, that formed the US National Team in 1950. At the World Cup Finals, the United States was drawn into the group with England, Spain and Chile. The USA, a bunch of scrubs and amateurs, beat England, 1-0. England was the birthplace of soccer. Sort of like England beating us in the Olympics in basketball or baseball. Didn’t see the movie but heard it was pretty good and relatively factual.
As would I. Mauer is, in my opinion, the most underrated player in the game.
Pedroia’s a fine player but this was not a great MVP pick; it was hype more than it was merit.
What kills me is that Francisco Rodriguez finished higher in MVP Voting than Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay, who finished AHEAD of Rodriguez in the Cy Young Award. So, according to the BBWAA, Rodriguez is a more valuable player than either Lee or Halladay even though they were better pitchers than he was. So unless Francisco hit a lot of home runs I didn’t see, it’s pretty obviousl to be the BBWAA is not comprised of North America’s smartest baseball observers.
It was not a great season for MVPs. Pujols is about the only guy who looks like what we think of as an “MVP candidate.” My thesis, esp. WRT the AL, is that the talent level is so frickin’ high anymore that the truly great players can’t separate themselves much from the pack of average players. Pedroia likely would have hit .350 about 20 years ago or so (as would’ve Mauer, who I agree is underrated as heck). As a Boston fan I’m biased but there’s been tons worse choices over the years, and really Pedroia has a pretty good argument all things considered. Mauer has 30 points of OBP, Dustin 100 more plate appearances; aside from position those are the most significant differences between them. Far too often they’ve mindlessly given it to the league RBI leader (Morneau 2006, who finished 2nd this year), so to me this is progress.
Yeah, 20 years ago they might have given it to Josh Hamilton. Hell, just 21 years ago they gave the awards to Andre Dawson and George Bell, surely the worst all-award MVP year ever, because they were the RBI leaders.
So much of the MVP Awards are based on hype or sheer whimsy that it’s hard to tell just where they’re going. RBI leaders get far too many awards, but then one year they’ll pick something else.
Pujols wins again!! Proving my superiority by rooting for the town of my unchosen-birth, which was lucky enough to draw a world-class athlete to its capitalistic baseball maw!!
Whoo Hoo!
Seriously, though, I do have a love for the Cards and for Albert. Love doesn’t always make perfect sense…