Print this Article
 E-mail this Article

The Pujols Awards:  July

The Alberts

I would like to nominate Pujols for the Pujols award based on this article from the Tennessean;

The Tennessean.com

ST. LOUIS — With the Gateway Arch as a backdrop, the Riverdale Warriors' jaws dropped. Inside Busch Stadium, the man who has become their hero was taking batting practice. And the teenagers were taking photography practice—snapping away on digital cameras and cell phones until memory cards were full.

And when Albert Pujols finally walked their way, well, that couldn't have made their day much better. That is, until he invited them inside the St. Louis Cardinals' clubhouse.

The Warriors were in Missouri on Monday as guests of the Pujols family. Before the Cardinals' game against the New York Mets, Pujols led the team on a 20-minute tour of the locker room—showing them where he watches film of opposing pitchers; taking them into the training room; popping his head into Manager Tony LaRussa's office; and finally, signing autographs for each player and posing for pictures with the entire team.

All the while, the Warriors wore big smiles, expressing a air of awe that Riverdale Coach Barry Messer said he doesn't witness too often. "When you deal with 17- and 18-year-old kids on a regular basis, it's hard to impress them," Messer said. "It's hard to make them say, 'Hey, that's pretty cool. That's neat.' But today, they were like kids all over again. That's what baseball should be about, really."

Pujols first made his presence felt in the Riverdale community in September when he invited Doris and Ken Frizzell—the parents of former Riverdale pitcher Jordan Henderson, who died in a car accident last July—to a Cardinals game. In September, the Frizzells were contacted by the Pujols Foundation, which had learned the story of Henderson and that he had carried an article about Pujols in his wallet.

The Luis

This is literally off the top of my head, but am I incorrectly remembering a lot of Steinbrenner boasting about how the Yankees were going to build this gem of a ballpark, this pinnacle of baseball achievement, on their own?

The “Manny being Manny”

I nominate Melky Cabrera for the "Manny Being Manny" Award.

As I'm sure everyone knows, the Bleacher Creatures at Yankee Stadium begin each game with their roll call, chanting each Yankee starting player's name until they receive an acknowledgment from the player. In Tuesday's Yankees–Twins game, Denard Span led off the first inning with a single to center. As the ball traveled over second base, the Bleacher Creatures finished with right fielder Bobby Abreu and started chanting Melky Cabrera's name. As Cabrera went for the ball, he waved to the crowd—and booted the ball when it took a bad hop. Not the most egregious mental error a player has ever made, I'll admit—but the epitome of a "Manny Being Manny"

Baseball fans in general get a Luis Award for their awful construction of the All-Star Game starting line-ups and voting in the wrong guy as the NL's 32nd player. I'm not going to dish out all of the numbers because it would take up a lot of space and I may as well write a blog about it instead, but I'll list the players who I believe were not deserving of starting roles on the rosters with who really deserved it in parentheses: Dustin Pedroia (Ian Kinsler), Derek Jeter (Michael Young), Manny Ramirez (Grady Sizemore), Ichiro Suzuki (J.D. Drew or Nick Markakis); Ryan Braun (Pat Burrell), Kosuke Fukudome (Nate McLouth).

I made this chart to show how clear the choice for the 32nd player on the NL roster was.

The players also get a Luis Award for their voting of the reserves, though it was hard to get those wrong since the fans did the heavy lifting beforehand.

Here's a short list of undeserving players: Jason Varitek, Joe Crede, Carlos Guillen, Miguel Tejada.

The coaches did a decent job of picking the pitchers, but I have to say ... Brian Wilson—he of the 4.37 ERA—over Johan Santana or Cole Hamels or Takashi Saito or Brandon Lyon or Kevin Gregg or Francisco Cordero? George Sherill—he of the 4.08 ERA—over John Danks or C.C. Sabathia or Felix Hernandez or Bobby Jenks? In neither case was it a "we have to give his team a representative" since Wilson's Giants had Tim Lincecum and Sherill's Orioles had Brian Roberts.

The Samsons

Rob Neyer pointed out this link in his blog: The Yanks have apparently banned sunscreen from the House that Ruth Built.

Five bucks for a three-ounce container of sunscreen. I never thought I'd see the day that stadium beer seemed like a good deal. Hank Steinbrenner makes the Judge from The Natural seem like an elder Carnegie (the philantropist, not the evil corporate emperor). The Judge may have tried to bribe Roy Hobbs (successfully in the book I might add), but at least he never gave anyone cancer. OK, so that may have been a little far, but you get my point.