Albert Pujols will be a Dodger or a Met… and I predict a conspiracy theory

A bizarre and round about series of events and coincidences have made it clear to me that Albert Pujols will almost certainly not be a member of the St. Louis Cardinals next year.

Before Pujols files for free agency, two large market franchises will change ownership and be in position to bid for him, and I believe Bud Selig will be manipulating the whole thing to help preserve his legacy.

That’s right, I am predicting a conspiracy before there are any facts or events to back up my theory. I admit that is no easy trick. But I think I am on to something.

Follow me…

Bud Selig is retiring in 2012. With the steroid era evidently behind him and if baseball avoids a work stoppage (and the NFL and NBA have one) then he will be able to claim that he left the game clean and thriving with labor peace.

But there are four gigantic messes he needs to clean up before riding off into the sunset.

Two won’t be covered here, but I will mention them: The Rays and the A’s stadium disasters. Neither team can last in their current dumps and nor have a viable solution for survival, especially if the Giants can block the A’s move to San Jose. But that is another post.

The big BIG mess is the state of the Mets and Dodgers, two of the flagship franchises of the National League. According to USA Today, only the Yankees and Red Sox are worth more than the Dodgers and those teams plus the Cubs are the only ones worth more than the Mets.

I don’t think it is stretch to call New York and Los Angeles big markets. And guess what? They are both in financial chaos.

The Dodgers have been mismanaged to the point where MLB had to take the unprecedented steps of essentially removing the owner from power. (We’ll see if Frank McCourt surrenders the power of the team.)

And the Mets should be on notice. If the twisted finances of the McCourt divorce can make Selig and company take over the Dodgers, then being swindled by Bernie Madoff (and not being sure what they knew in advance) should be even a greater cause for MLB to step in and take the car keys away from the Wilpons.

In the very least, the Mets should be forced to sell.

So that would mean the Mets and Dodgers would have new ownership going into the 2012 season. And also have a disillusioned fan base, declining attendance and a natural division rival playing well (the Phillies for the Mets and the Giants for the Dodgers.)

Whomever is going to run the Mets and the Dodgers will need to assure their paying customers (and TV viewers and sponsors) that not only are the bad days behind them but glamorous superstar days are ahead.

The Giants were in a similar boat when Peter Magowan took over the team in the wake of the proposed move to Tampa Bay. He found the quickest way to get the fan base energized: He signed the best player in baseball, Barry Bonds.

Which brings us to Albert Pujols. He’s a free agent to be. He has nothing left to prove in St. Louis when he finishes this, his 11th season. He has given the Cardinals a championship, post season heroics, MVPs and done so with class and a flair for the dramatic. And, as I said in a previous video, Cardinal fans can NEVER boo him.

Pujols could need a new challenge in his life, the biggest contract in baseball history and a chance to be a hero in a brand new market.

(See Rose, Pete. See Jackson, Reggie. And Albert is better than both of them!)

And if just so happens that the Dodgers have an opening at first base. I may not be 100% sure how VORP works, but I can guess that Albert Pujols replacing James Loney is an improvement.

And the Mets have Ike Davis, who is a nice player. When you have the chance to get one of the great offensive players of all time, you might think about sacrificing a nice player or two!

Both the Dodgers and the Mets will have new owners, money to spend and a city to impress. And they will BOTH bid on Albert Pujols.

Why do I say that with such certainty? Because Selig will make sure of it. Captain Bud will not let an owner take over the Dodgers nor the Mets unless they were intending on trying to sign Pujols.

It makes sense for the Dodgers to win back their fans and show there is a new era in Chavez Ravine.

It makes sense for the Mets to turn the page on the Wilpon fiasco (and no doubt Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins would welcome Albert’s arrival.)

It makes sense for labor peace as players making big contracts is always looked on fondly by the Players Association.

And it makes sense for Selig as he leave the game with franchises other than the Yankees and Red Sox bidding over the biggest free agents.

And which ever team can’t land Pujols will have a nice consolation prize in Prince Fielder.

Think Selig is above this sort of backroom dealings? Or perhaps not clever enough?

PUH-lease. I am not going to even go into the whole “Used Car Salesman” past of Mr. Selig.

This was the guy who maneuvered the ownership of the Expos, Marlins and Red Sox around so his hand picked successor would take over in Boston instead of the McCourts.

This was the guy who claimed to have no clue about the steroid culture, even though allegations were made public as far back as 1988, when Peter Ueberroth was commissioner.

This was the guy who was part of the owners group that ousted Fay Vincent for not doing their bidding and installing himself as owner/commissioner. It was supposed to be temporary. That was 1992.

This was one of the many owners found guilty of collusion in the 1980s.

Shady wheeling and dealing are right in Bud Selig’s wheelhouse.

So a nudge here and there and making sure the new owners come with an aggressive eye on Albert is not as outlandish as colluding, kicking the commissioner out and not noticing that the players all were bigger than the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

You heard it here first on Sully Baseball.

I am declaring it a conspiracy before it actually happens.

Colluding is and always will be part of Bud Selig’s legacy.

Bud Selig is getting a statue?

Really?

A statue?

According to Yahoo Sports he is... and why would Yahoo Sports lie to me?

I can only hope they preserve him for all time shrugging while watching the All Star Game end in a tie.

Now why am I against Bud Selig getting a statue?

Well, I listed some reasons why maybe Bud might not exactly be statue worthy a year ago.
You can read those here.

I don't know what it says about me, but when I heard Bud was getting a statue, the image of ANOTHER statue came to my mind...

Fehr and Loathing

Donald Fehr is stepping down as head of the baseball union, and I think "Good!"

But I think that not for the reasons that you probably think.

I know a lot of people dislike him because he helped baseball players salaries skyrocket. But I don't begrudge players from making money. Who out there would turn down their money?

I don't blame him for the World Series cancellation. I remember getting into arguments with people during 1994 when I insisted the players were right and the owners were a bunch of liars who wouldn't open their books.

And keep in mind that was tempered by the fact that Fehr helped expose the owners illegal collusion. That collusion led directly to outsing Fay Vincent, Bud Selig being put into office, over expansion, the 1994 strike, steroids and the insane handling of the Expos/Nationals franchise.

In other words, I don't think he's a bad guy.

I think he seems a little creepy and cold. It would be nice to see him smile. It would be nice to see him at a baseball game cheering.

It would have been nice if his name wasn't the same as the word FEAR.

It also would have been nice if his default position on the whole steroid issue wasn't "You have no proof and this is a privacy issue."

But here's something to chew on... the owners seemed to hate him because he was so tough and yet Marvin Miller, his mentor, didn't think he was tough enough.

When the extremes on BOTH sides don't like you, that means you are probably doing a good job.

But it's time to move on.

The collective bargaining agreement is going to expire in a few years, and I think it is time to have fresh blood and new voices at the bargaining table. Almost all of the owners who have colluded have sold the team. And it would be nice if the main characters talking about avoiding a strike are not the same people who fiddled while the 1994 World Series was cancelled.

I was reminded of the California Democratic primary last year.

My wife and I disagreed on who to vote for. She voted for Hillary Clinton and I voted for Obama. 

And as shallow as this might sound, it was the freshness of a new voice at the helm that made me decide. It was nothing against Hillary... but something bothered me.

If you were 19 years old during last year's election cycle, there had been a Bush or a Clinton in the White House your whole life.

And seeing that you don't really pay attention to trivial things like "who is President" until you are 8 or 9, then there were 28 year olds voting with no memory of someone NOT named Bush or Clinton as President. And when you take Poppy Bush's VP terms into account, there were 36 year olds with no concrete memories of a Bush or a Clinton not in the executive branch.

Mention the name Bush to a liberal and they wince.

The reaction is the same from a conservative when you mention the name Clinton.

And I thought "there is too much venom here... let's try a new flavor."

So in this very strange analogy, Fehr is Hillary Clinton. 

It's time to try something new and something that doesn't have such built in acrimony. 

And of course that also means one of those colluding owners needs to go too.

Hey Bud! Take Donald's lead. You've been Commissioner for 17 years. Time for someone new.

(Any chance I can get to ask Bud Selig to step down, I'll take!)

Bud Selig thinks A-Rod "shamed the game"... something Bud knows a little bit about!

When I heard Bud Selig call someone else out on shaming the game of baseball, i came down with what is known as Exploding Head Syndrome.

Bud Selig complaining about someone shaming the game is like Amy Winehouse criticizing someone's health habits.

This is the same Bud Selig who was...

- One of the owners found guilty of collusion in the 1980s...

- One of the cabal of owners who ousted Fay Vincent and put a small market owner in the role of commissioner (no conflict of interest there.)

- The only commissioner to have the World Series, which was played through 2 World Wars, a Depression, Vietnam and the 1989 San Francisco Earthquake, cancelled.

- The commissioner who oversaw reckless expansion in the 1990s to pay off the collusion fines.

- The commissioner who looked the other way when players suddenly started looking like Lou Ferrigno, even though reports of steroid use by Canseco and McGwire were rumored in the 1980s (and a topic during the broadcast of the 1988 World Series.)

- The commissioner who saw the brightest hour that baseball had in a generation, the wonderful post September 11th World Series in 2001, and threw cold water on the celebration by announcing his plan to contract franchises. (Maybe if you hadn't colluded in the 1980s, you wouldn't have to expand in the 1990s and threaten to contract in the 2000s!)

- The commissioner who couldn't come up with a solution to finish the 2002 All Star Game. How about a Home Run Derby or something? If I wanted to see something great have a unsatisfying sudden ending, I'd pop in Saving Private Ryan.

- The commissioner who looked clueless in front of congress during the steroid hearings. (Although truth be told, Selig looks clueless when he says "Hi, my name is Bud Selig."

- The commissioner who didn't think to check the weather report before Game 5 of the 2008 World Series. He may have seen the Dopler was calling for a tsunami. And maybe the first 6 innings of a potential clinching World Series game wouldn't have been played in what looked like quicksand.

- The commissioner who on that same game pulled the tarp out almost as soon as the Rays tied the game and somehow tried to make us think that was a coincidence and not a way to save his own ass from seeing a World Series clinched with a rain shortened game. (It would have been better than what we had in 1994!!!!) Instead we had a suspended game, killing any momentum the World Series may have had.


He is approaching what will be his fourth decade of heaping potential irreparable shame on baseball (and pulling down $17 million a year to do it!)

I guess he might be like Jose Canseco... when he talked about who was doing 'roids he turned out to be a good source.

Maybe when he says A-Rod shamed the game, we should consider it a comment from an authority.