Commish on the news

Rick Hummel had two very good articles on the news today.

The first was Bob Gibson and Whitey Herzog's reactions to Pujols' leaving for Anaheim.

Bob Gibson, the Cardinals' Hall-of-Fame pitcher, said today he would have liked to have seen Albert Pujols stay in St.Louis, but with the kind of money being offered, it's hard to turn down the kind of offer that the Angels made.

"I hate to see him go, I really do. He should have been a Cardinal for life," Gibson said. "It's tough to turn that (kind of money) down."

Will it be a hard day for St. Louis fans?

"I would think it's got to be a hard day for Pujols, too. Aside from the fact that you're making a lot of more money, there's got to be a lot of emotional things there.

"He's got a lot of ties in St. Louis -- his family, his friends, so many organizations ... "[...]

Herzog said he was "worried" last spring when the Cardinals didn't re-sign Pujols. "That was big," said Herzog. "I thought at the time they should have come to a deal. Maybe say, ‘You'll be Cardinal for life and you'll get ‘x' amont of dollars till you're 65 years old.'

"But still I thought a deal might be worked out. I thought he could come back because of his ties to St. Louis and that it's a great place to play.

"What it boils down to again is that money talks.

"I don't blame the Cardinals. They made a helluva offer although I don't know how they would have structured it.

"I'm sure a lot of people in St. Louis are up in arms and calling the Cardinals cheapstakes. I don't think that's true. I think they negotiated a very fair contract."

But, said Herzog, "You can't deny what Albert did. He had a gimpy leg and a bad elbow and played every day. He was the Cardinals."

The second article was showing where Pujols stands in St. Louis compared to Stan "The Man" Musial.

If Pujols' next 10 years would have been anything like his first 11, the Cardinals' first baseman legitimately could have challenged, at least statistically, the revered Musial as the Greatest Cardinal of Them All."

Now, with Pujols fleeing to the Los Angeles Angels, Musial, as he has had for the last 50 or 60 years, will hold that title in undisputed fashion -- for our lifetimes and those of many others.

Pujols would have had to step it up a bit to catch Musial for career batting average as a Cardinal. He finished three points behind at .328 and 1,557 hits behind at 3,630-2,073.

Home runs would have been no contest. Musial wound up his 22-season career with 475 homers as a Cardinal. Pujols already has 445 on his way probably to 700 or more.

Runs batted in, the third part of a hitter's trifecta, also would have fallen to Pujols. Musial ended with 1,949. Pujols already has 1,329 and would have had to average only 70 or so RBIs a year to pass Musial there.