ST. LOUIS
What if Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx in 1934, or Ted Williams and Stan Musial in ’49, or Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays in ’62, or Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson in ’65 could’ve said, “I wonder who I’ll play for next year?”
- Thomas Boswell
- Columnist
2011 NLCS: Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder play for high stakes on the field and in contract talks
Christian Petersen/GETTY IMAGES - You know where Cardinals fans stand when it comes to re-signing Albert Pujols.
The times weren’t ripe then, but they sure are now. That’s where Albert Pujols, 31, and Prince Fielder, 27, stand as their teams play for the National League pennant. They are the play within the play.
These two are not just stars that are free agents. They both embody their teams, the Cardinals classic and traditional, the Brewers burly and proud to be a bit scruffy. Their personalities are the core of their franchises. As a result, romantics say that one or both may return to their old teams. Yet that’s very seldom how it works these days. Free equals “Going, going . . .”
Before this season, Pujols already turned down a Cards contract reportedly for nine years and $195 million. So, the bidding for him presumably starts at 10 years and far more than $200 million. Fielder, who said recently that this was probably his last year as a Brewer, may slipstream right behind Pujols with agent Scott Boras doing the arm-wrestling.
The stakes truly are as high as they seem because Pujols and Fielder have been genuinely great — so far. Gehrig, Foxx, Aaron, Mays, Mantle and Robinson are six of the 10 players, along with others such as Ken Griffey Jr., whose careers most resemble Pujols statistically at 31. Just obscure guys.
Fielder needs a few years to join that company. So far, his progress is “only” comparable to Hall of Famers like Eddie Murray, Jim Rice and Orlando Cepeda.
With this NL Championship Series tied at two games apiece after a 4-2 Brewers win on Thursday night, the stage is perfectly set for this pair. Pujols took the early lead with five extra-base hits in the first three games. But Fielder has caught him after a walk, double and crucial dig of a low throw at first base. Both have easy slugging percentages to remember: exactly 1.000.
After Fielder smoked his double to center field in Game 4, a hush and buzz spread over packed Busch Stadium, as if to say, “Well, it wasn’t a home run.” The youngest man ever to hit 50 homers, the slugger with 200 bombs in the last five years, was simply too good to haze. Here was, possibly, 275 pounds of greatness hitting its prime. Please, let him go anywhere except the NL Central and especially those hated Cubs.
Every time Pujols came to bat, animals were sacrificed and blood covered the moon. Well, not quite. But a lot of people yelled, “Please don’t go, Albert,” because the Cards’ first baseman is the most nearly perfect player a lot of them are ever going to see.
Yet, amid this adulation, a morsel of respectful realism is needed.
Long ago, when players were serfs, decisions were few. And things were also less fun. Imagine: What if the teams that developed stars like Double X and the Iron Horse, or the Splendid Splinter and Stan the Man, had to decide whether to keep them and at what price?
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