Pujols, Mr. September

[ClementeFanOh]

Dear God- "mountain, meet mole hill"

1) There is no conspiracy about Pujols reaching HR history. There wasn't a
secret meeting of the pitcher's union in which they voted to groove
pitches, so he could reach a milestone while they become answers to
obscure trivia questions.

2) Albert Pujols has reached his achievements because of his OWN
performance. The RBI total certainly is influenced by who bats ahead of
him- as it is for every single player. He doesn't make out the lineup cards
and does not control who reaches base in front of him, who the opposing
pitcher is, etc. Yes, several of his Angels years were below average- for
him!- as he got older. I continue to be amazed that some "fans" continue
to be befuddled by the reality that the skill of most professional athletes,
even great ones, diminishes with age. Google machine reveals a career
average of 296 with 2000+ RBI and 700+ HR. He's Mickey Mantle with
175 more HR and 500+ more RBI (and save it, I know they played
different positions and different amounts of seasons- point is he's been a
killer player).

3) The problem with dissecting something is that it's dead when you're
done. Give it a rest!


Trent King