The St. Louis Cardinals ranked among Major League Baseball’s most successful franchises before Albert Pujols arrived. And the Cardinals will remain prosperous long after the Pujols Era finally ends, however it ends. Baseball is bigger than one player around here. It always has been, it always will be – despite perceptions outside the market. “Albert is the brand of the Cardinals,” one unnamed agent told ESPN.com recently. “Period. [Bill] DeWitt should have sold the team if he didn't think they could sign Albert Pujols.” Why would DeWitt sell the team? It is profitable and competitive now. It would remain profitable and competitive with Albert, should the two sides strike a mammoth new deal allowing him to retire here. And DeWitt knows the Cards would remain profitable and competitive should Albert depart as a free agent after this season. The team was drawing 3 million fans a year before Pujols arrived. The team will continue drawing 3 million fans a year, with or without Albert, as long as it remains reasonably competitive. No. 5’s exit would anger the fan base, for sure, but the citizens of Cardinal Nation wouldn't abandon Our National Pastime en masse to protest his departure. This is the team’s leverage. Albert’s leverage is his standing as the best offensive player of his generation and the eagerness of other teams to get him. Thus the impasse continues, as Joe Strauss wrote in his excellent analysis of the situation. Fans are understandably fretful. They fear the worst. They worry that DeWitt will be cheap or that Albert will be greedy. But remember how this franchise has weathered storms over the years. Iconic manager Whitey Herzog threw up his hands in frustration and quit in 1990 as his team staggered toward a last-place finish. Hindered by budgetary constraints and poor management, the team missed the playoffs the next five seasons. Yet the fan base remained eerily strong in the face of relentless mediocrity, never drawing fewer than 2.4 million fans for a full season. The Cards survived the great 1994-95 labor dispute, too. Some fans never returned after play resumed, but most eventually did. Since 1996, the average Cards attendance has never dipped below 32,000 fans per game. The franchise survived the unhappy end of the Ozzie Smith Era, which saw the beloved Hall of Fame-bound shortstop relegated to a secondary role before retiring. The bitter Wizard waged a one-man PR campaign against manager Tony La Russa from that point on. Fans shrugged and kept attending games. Media types became outraged when La Russa hired steroid cheat Mark McGwire as his hitting coach. How could the team bring back the man who embarrassed the franchise and the city with his admitted use of performance-enhancing drugs? Fans shrugged and kept attending games. Now the Pujols Contract is front and center in the debate. The Cards stand to lose season-ticket holders and perhaps some corporate support if he departs. Fans would be especially upset if they believed DeWitt and Co. insulted Albert with low-ball offers. But baseball would still be baseball and the Cardinals would still be the Cardinals. The franchise has locked in other star players, like former batting champ Matt Holliday, former Cy Young Award winner Chris Carpenter and former World Series hero Adam Wainwright. Given their durable fan support, the Cards would be able to redistribute the money Albert rejects to other high-end players. Life would go on. St. Louis isn’t Cleveland. The Cardinals aren’t the Cavaliers. And Albert Pujols isn’t LeBron James. 全文大意在於: 小普在红鸟的时代将要结束了,某位经纪人提到假使没办法续签的话不如把球队卖了 球迷怕老板太小气或是小普狮子大开口而导致谈判破裂 但即使双方各分东西,球还是要看的,而不会因为看板的离开就不看球了 红鸟也不会像某队一样因为看板走了就倒地不起 最後作者还小小的婊了骑士跟LBJ....XD 有误请指正,thx http://tinyurl.com/4tw5aq6 --

※ 发信站: 批踢踢实业坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 122.121.24.115 ※ ck3300511:转录至看板 Cardinals 01/27 23:35