Selig's main requirement for a new Dodger owner: SIGN PUJOLS!

I don't believe in random events.
I don't believe in first causes.
I don't believe that actions take place in vacuums.

Even me typing this blog post is the result of a long chain reaction of events.

And a chain reaction of events could be conspiring to bring Albert Pujols to Dodger Stadium.
I have no evidence to back up these theories. But I still think it makes sense.

- Albert Pujols launches 3 home runs in one World Series game, putting him in World Series history with Reggie Jackson and Babe Ruth. And he helps spark one of the World Series saving rallies in Game 6. (The fact that he was basically a non factor in the other World Series games is forgotten by everyone.)

- Albert Pujols is a free agent... a perennial MVP candidate and one of the few marquee stars in the game. Plus he is a class act, free of scandal and has multiple rings in St. Louis. He's probably staying in St. Louis with his father figure, Tony LaRussa.

- LaRussa retires, ending his career with his crowning achievement. He can spend his days saving animals and writing his Cooperstown speech.

- SO Pujols has nothing left to prove in St. Louis. He can leave St. Louis on top and take on a new challenge and more money than any of us can ever dream of. ($30 million a year?)


Meanwhile in Los Angeles...

- The Dodgers fiasco might be finally grinding to a halt. Frank McCourt, in denial like William H. Macy's character in Fargo, might finally realize that he ISN'T just one deal away from keeping control of the team. MLB might take over the Dodgers. They did that once before with the Expos.

- This is a different scenario. That was saving a team from contraction and getting them to Washington DC. The Dodgers need to be lifted from the humiliation of bankruptcy and mismanagement. The Dodgers SHOULD be one of the glamorous franchises. And it would behoove baseball to have a big west coast superpower (sorry Giants fans. Your team isn't a superpower.)

- So if MLB takes over the Dodgers, they can hand pick whomever takes over the team. They will have to be committed to turn the Dodgers back into a powerhouse, make L.A. as baseball crazy as New York and Boston and bring some star power to Dodger Stadium.

- The Dodgers just HAPPENED to have a hole at first base (sorry James Loney). They just HAPPENED to have an MVP candidate to protect Pujols in the lineup with Matt Kemp. They just HAPPEN to play in a winnable division. (Sorry Diamondbacks.) And unless Juan Uribe has more pull than I thought, #5 just HAPPENS to be available in Los Angeles.

- The Dodgers also just HAPPEN to be a team in a desperate situation to have some positive press after all the off the field embarrassment. And they need something, besides a face who ISN'T Frank McCourt, to jumstart season ticket sales.

- If MLB can control who buys the Dodgers, they COULD make "Will you make a big push for Albert Pujols?" a requirement. It would be good for the franchise and could make the Dodgers a marquee franchise again.

Fans are going to show up in St. Louis. It's a new era there anyway.

Pujols (paired with NL MVP candidate Matt Kemp and Cy Young candidate Clayton Kershaw) could have his new challenge.

Bud Selig, someone NOT above colluding, could be in a unique position to handpick someone to bid on Pujols.

Where else is Albert going? Sure Theo Epstein wants to make a big splash with the Cubs, but he has to weed OUT big contracts before bringing in a new one. The Mets are a mess. And maybe the Marlins would make a run at him, but they are a dark horse at best.

Of course the Rangers, White Sox, Nationals and Orioles are never shy about throwing money around. But I can't see Albert going to any of those places.

The Dodgers are the most logical landing place in many ways.
It's a boost to the franchise.
It's a bump in West Coast baseball's interest.
And it could make Albert even more marketable than he is now.

Don't think this ISN'T going through Bud Selig's mind.
It's a chain reaction of events... and it could lead to the image of Albert Pujols playing first base for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

(For the record, I think Pujols is staying put... but you never know!)

TITO!!! CALL ST. LOUIS NOW!!!

The World Champion St. Louis Cardinals have a job opening!
Their Hall of Fame manager is leaving on top.
They have the foundation of a great team being left behind.

They can hand the reigns of the team over to a coach like Jose Oquendo or Dave McKay or Joe Pettini.

Maybe long time pitching coach guru Dave Duncan can manage the team.

Or 800 pound gorilla Mark McGwire.

OR they can insert a respected manager who happened to have a bad month.
Someone with two World Series titles of his own... including one at the expense of the Cardinals.

Terry Francona... Cardinals manager.
St. Louis is just as great a baseball city as Boston without the grief or inferiority complex.

The inferiority complex is in Chicago... and who is running the Cubs now? THEO!

Oh this could be a NEW wrinkle in the Cubs/Cardinals rivalry!!!

Become the Cardinals manager, win a World Series title in St. Louis... be beloved forever and rehearse your Cooperstown speech.

Give them a call.

Hats off to Tony LaRussa

I've never been a Tony LaRussa fan... but man you have to respect him.
He is probably the greatest manager of our time. If he's not, he's in the conversation.

And he retired as a World Series champ.
No backstabbing, book writing, passive aggressive swiping at management here.

This isn't Torre or Francona's ending where you need to remind people of the good times.

He's out on top after winning the best World Series in a decade.

He has three World Series titles. No need to apologize for not winning more. He has as many World Series titles as Leo Durocher, Earl Weaver and Whitey Herzog combined.

I was never a fan.
But man I am an admirer.

Ozzie Guillen, Bruce Bochy, Charlie Manuel, Joe Girardi, Davey Johnson, Mike Scioscia and Jim Leyland are the only current managers who have won a World Series title now.

None more than one.

Who will take the title of "Best Current Manager?"

We'll see.

Hey Colby Rasmus! Where did you watch the game?

Hey! If you could have not pulled a Diva act and whined your way out of St. Louis, you might be a World Series champ!

But I'm sure you made the right decision.

These Cardinals seemed like a really tough group to play with.

And yeah, the Cardinals made such a bad move dealing a pain in the ass player with one pretty good season under his belt for pitching depth.

Rasmus is going to get a World Series ring.
I hope LaRussa presents it to him on his middle finger.

Nobody could text message in Arlington last night?

In this day and age when everyone in the ballpark has a cell phone and sending texts and videos, you are honestly telling me that the Cardinals couldn't communicate with their bullpen last night?

They don't have ONE person with a cell phone? If they can't hear, send a damn text message.

No need to type out all of Rzepczynski. Rzep will do fine.

LaRussa's explanation for why Lance Lynn was in there and not Jason Motte was bizarre.
Why Rzepczynski was pitching to Mike Napoli may never be solved.

All I know is a few cell phones placed here or there could go a long way.
And short of that, do what Susan Sarandon did in Bull Durham and send a kid with a note.

10 Reasons why the St. Louis Cardinals winning the 2011 World Series would be good for baseball

Continuing my series of Why Each Team's Potential World Championship Would Be Good For The Game, I am tackling the Cardinals.

Now the NL Central race looked like it was going to be a four horse contest. Instead, Milwaukee could run away with it.

So I better get my Cardinals entry done before they fall out of the race. The Cardinals have had a strange year. Wainwright has missed the season, there was the bizarre Colby Rasmus controversy and questions about Albert Pujols and his contract have swirled around the club.

Yet here they sit in mid August in contention and facing a very soft part of their schedule in the next few weeks. Games against Pittsburgh, the Cubs and Dodgers will fill up their dance card before going head to head against first place Brewers at the end of the month. So by Labor Day they could be within striking distance.

So would the Cardinals winning it all be good for the game?

Let me count the ways!

10 Reasons why the

St. Louis Cardinals

winning the 2011 World Series

would be good for baseball

1. If Albert Pujols leaves, another title would be a hell of a Good Bye!



Look, nobody knows what is happening with Albert Pujols. He could be coming back to St. Louis. He could be looking for a new challenge. Lord knows the Dodgers, Mets, Cubs and Orioles all would love to get some POSITIVE PR. And the Nationals have seem hell bent to bring a star to DC. So Albert's fate beyond 2011 has not been sealed.



But if he has to go, leave as a champion! All I can think of is Pedro Martinez, whose contract situation wasn't always pleasant. But what was the last image of him pitching for the Red Sox? Winning Game 3 of the 2004 World Series.



Pujols owes Cardinals fans nothing... but if he leaves them happy, how could you be mad?

2. Maybe a THIRD World Series title can make Tony LaRussa remotely likable



I can't comprehend why I don't like Tony LaRussa. But I don't.



It has nothing to do with the drunk driving (although that makes you an automatic a--hole.) And it has nothing to do with the Glenn Back rally last year. My dislike for LaRussa goes back WAAAAAY before that.



And all the cute puppies and kittens can't save it.

But maybe another title can make him seem as cuddly as the animals he loves to be seen with.



Maybe a Tony LaRussa title can turn into a celebration of his greatness and a big love in.



It might be worth seeing.





3. It would be a wonderful middle finger to Colby Rasmus



I know I've been picking on Colby Rasmus... but come on! We whined his way out of St. Louis based on one good season. Albert Pujols NEVER calls anyone out and he called out him.



Having him stuck in Toronto while the Cardinals celebrate without him might give players with one good year second thoughts to acting superior to their Hall of Fame manager.



Just saying.









4. The ever growing argument to put Dave Duncan in the Hall of Fame



As the Phillies are stockpiling aces, the Giants growing them and the Brewers dealing for them, the Cardinals don't need them.



They'll win with Fernando Salas closing games. The Cardinals will win with Kyle Lohse, Jake Westbrook and Edwin Jackson.



That's because Dave Duncan works his magic, just he did when he turned Chris Carpenter from reclamation project to Cy Young winner and Jeff Weaver from waiver material to World Series hero.



The pitchers in St. Louis come and go but they all seem to improve under Duncan. He might be a genius or a wizard. But if he keeps this up, he might be the first person to make the Hall of Fame as a pitching coach!







5. Maybe Mark McGwire's success can lead to more "Post Roids" work



Hitting coach Mark McGwire hasn't caused much controversy since taking his new gig. He has had some hitters flourish under his watchful eye. (I really hope the sudden surge in Lance Berkman's numbers have been because of McGwire tips and not the old method of "inject this"!)



If the page has been turned, then I hope this leads to Barry Bonds, hitting coach... Roger Clemens, pitching coach... oh let's face it. I want it to lead to Manny Ramirez, MANAGER! Tell me you wouldn't watch a team managed by Manny every single day!





6. A ring for Octavio Dotel, at long last



I wrote about Octavio Dotel's unbelievably bad luck playing for contenders in The Hardball Times.



Dotel broke into the bigs in 1999. Since then he has played for the Mets, Astros, A’s, Yankees, Royals, Braves, White Sox, Pirates, Dodgers, Rockies, Blue Jays and Cardinals. During his 13-year career, seven of those franchises went to the World Series. Yet Dotel hasn't pitched in a World Series as of this writing. That is insane.



Like Mike Morgan before him, who bounced from team to team without a ring, he truly savored that 2001 title. It would be the same for Dotel who has been a solid if unspectacular veteran for over a decade. He would cherish that ring.





7. Chris Carpenter's reputation as a big game pitcher would grow



Chris Carpenter is not going to the Hall of Fame. But he's had a nice run in St. Louis. He won a Cy Young Award and had two more top 3 finishes in the vote. And when he went down to injuries in 2007 and 2008, St. Louis fell out of contention.



When he came back as the ERA Champ in 2009, they were back in. If the Cardinals win the Division this year, then they would have been a playoff team in 5 of Carpenter's 6 full seasons for the Redbirds.



Throw in the fact that his injury that kept him out of the 2004 World Series helped cost them the title. And he pitched wonderfully in 4 of his 6 post season series. Another great October could help him get that "Not a Hall of Famer but a big game pitcher" reputation that Dave Stewart and Jack Morris have.





8. Matt Holliday deserves a POSITIVE Post Season highlight!





Yeah I know Matt Holliday won the 2007 NLCS MVP. If you have any October memories of Holliday, what are they?



His Wild Card winning slide in the San Diego playoff game where it looked like he never touched home plate?



His being picked off in practically the only critical moment in the 2007 World Series?



Nah... it's probably his dropping a game ending flyball in the 2009 Division Series that led to a Dodgers come from behind rally.



Holliday has had a terrific career. He deserves better.



9. Let's face it. The 2006 World Series was strange.



I wrote a post a few years ago about a conversation I had with a die hard Cardinals fan who forgot his team won the 2006 World Series. In a strange way I can understand why. The 2004 and 2005 Cardinals teams both won over 100 games and looked like legit World Series contenders, but fell short.



The 2006 team stumbled into the post season and while I am sure St. Louis fans were happy for them, they probably didn't invest as much "I think this team is going to win it" emotion on that battered squad. But the '06 squad, by far the weakest of Tony LaRussa's 8 playoff teams in St. Louis, was the one that delivered.



And I think it caught St. Louis off guard. It was a nice surprise, but the kind that has the awkward "Oh dear, if I had known you were coming I would have cleaned up the house" vibe to it.







10. The biggest baseball fans shouldn't wait long for a title!



Any discussion of baseball's most passionate fans usually gravitates towards Boston and New York... then heads west and lands in St. Louis.



Relax Giants fans, I know you love your team. So do you Baltimore fans, even though you haven't had much to cheer about. But in terms of cities that love their baseball teams more than their football teams, that list seems to be three names long. And the Red Sox won in 2007 and the Yankees in 2009. All three fan bases have a recent one and they shouldn't have to wait for another.



There should be a celebration involving the living Cardinal greats like Bob Gibson, Stan Musial, Ozzie Smith, Bruce Sutter and Lou Brock. And with the love of the Cardinals stretched throughout the Midwest, maybe Fox, TBS and ESPN will show them on the National stage a little more.







So that's plenty of reasons to be happy for a Cardinals title.

Now I will make this note. Before any Reds fans comment, yes Cincinnati should be mentioned along with Boston, St. Louis and New York as big baseball cities.



And yes Mets fans, I know that YOU haven't been appeased by the recent World Series titles. Get mad at Carlos Beltran for looking at a called third strike!



A Cardinals World Series title could be so terrific that it would almost make it bearable to hear Tim McCarver and Joe Buck go on and on about the great Cardinals teams of the past... almost.



If you liked this then go ahead and read the entries for the other teams.



CHICAGO WHITE SOX

NEW YORK YANKEES

NOW we get to see if Colby Rasmus becomes a big star

You got your wish, Colby Rasmus.
You were removed from the baseball purgatory that is St. Louis... from the blockhead manager that is probably going to the Hall of Fame... and a situation where you could make the playoffs for the second time in your three year career.

It must be a relief.
Now he can show the world what Tony LaRussa couldn't see.
And what evidently his supporters already see.
And the people who think the Blue Jays are stealing a star.

I am no LaRussa fan, but I have a hard time seeing how a guy with a decent season under his belt and lots of potential (you know, like Alex Ochoa) could be the focus of so much hand wringing.

I know he's young.
So were every bust in baseball history.

He remains hitless as a Blue Jay. But it is his FUTURE that everyone craves.

The strange thing about the future... sometimes it doesn't unfold the way you want.

And maybe if Rasmus struggles in an empty Rogers Centre for non contending Blue Jays teams, he might pine for the days when he played in a great baseball city along side future Hall of Famers with one of the great managers of all time.

But maybe I am wrong.
And if I am wrong, I will eat crow.

I need more than projections and potential. He needs to actually become a star.

THAT'S showing some fight, Pirates

When I saw the Pirates were losing AGAIN today, I was all ready to take them to the woodshed. I was going to trash them for letting themselves get swept at home and allowing the naysayers to be right.

Then lo and behold, a comeback and a 10th inning rally later (along with the Brewers loss to the Giants) and they finished the weekend still tied for first place.

It wasn't the best start to the 20 game stretch to define the season... but the more days they spend in first, the better.

Now will someone explain to me why they pitched to Chase d'Arnaud instead of walking him, forcing the Pirates to bring in a pinch hitter and setting up a potential inning ending double play?

I'm not saying I'm smarter than Tony LaRussa... but the logic of that escaped me.

Well, you are still tied for first place Pirates.
Go to Atlanta. And don't want video from the 1991 nor 1992 NLCS.

Please have Berkman be a NICE Tony LaRussa comeback story

In the last few years, Lance Berkman's stats have been falling off. He was a part time player for the Yankees in the playoffs last year, pressed into starting duty after Mark Teixeira's injury.

Well now he is in St. Louis and is putting up All Star numbers again.

Among the leaders in batting, he knocked his 15th homer tonight and drove in his 45th run.

It's a terrific comeback.
Tony LaRussa has had a lot of players comeback for him.

Dave Stewart in Oakland became an Ace, as did Chris Carpenter in St. Louis. Jim Edmonds refound his stroke and countless pitching reclamation projects.

But there have been other kind of comebacks.

The Mark McGwire comebacks... the lots of players who played for him being connected to stuff kind of comebacks.

Remember how quickly the Rick Ankiel story turned from the feel good baseball story of the decade to "Oh dear..."?

I so hope this is a NICE comeback on a LaRussa squad. But my guard is up.

Managing to Cooperstown - My latest for The Hardball Times

A big league manager will win a World Series this year. But how will that title affect their Hall of Fame resume?

For a few it would put them in the conversation. For others it would simply silence some critics. And still others would have a great first credit on their resume.

In my latest for The Hardball Times, I look at each big league manager and consider what the 2011 World Championship would mean for their legacy.

You can read the article HERE.

Have you noticed...

Have you noticed that the Cardinals haven't won since Tony LaRussa and Albert Pujols appeared at Glenn Beck's vague rally?

They've lost two to the Nationals and all three to the Astros... not exactly world beaters.

Just making an observation.
I am sure people in Cincinnati are glad they showed up.

Tony LaRussa should be trying to Restore the Cardinals to the Pennant race

Call me nuts, but maybe the time Tony LaRussa spent coming up with a speech for Glenn Beck's dopey little promotional stunt could have been used in a more productive manner:

Like how about a game plan against the Nationals.

You know when you are the prohibitive favorite to win the division with the best 1-2 punch in the rotation in all the National League and a guy who seems hell bent to win his third straight MVP and you are LOSING ground to the Reds and Phillies... maybe promoting a Fox News talk show shouldn't be priority one.

Oh yeah, the Nats won 14-5... the Cardinals pitchers are letting up an average of 9 runs a game to the Nationals.

Maybe they should have Glenn Beck write THAT on his chalk board.

Congrats on your 400th homer Albert... Now PLEASE don't get caught

Seriously, the WHOLE EARTH wants this to be a cool and wonderful achievement.
We want to have each homer be a wonderful moment.

But we've been stung recently. And we're slow to trust.

So... I'm not going to ask if there's anything in your diet BESIDES Wheaties Fuel... please hide it well.

I don't want to know. Nobody does. We want to have fun.
Hide it better than those other two sluggers who played under Tony LaRussa.

I am rooting for you Albert Pujols. Let's keep it that way, shall we?