Other than Ichiro's remarkable night, the big story of last night's All-Star Game was the fact that Albert Pujols took a DNP-Manager's Decision. Prince Fielder started the game at first and Derrek Lee relieved him because, as Tony La Russa told Joe Buck during an insipid in-game interview, he was saving Pujols as a utility player to fill in if the need arose. Buck chortled at this and related a story about seeing Albert play shortstop during a spring training game. Now during said insipid interview Buck prefaced his first question to La Russa by saying that the Cardinal manager was a true National Leaguer who wanted to restore some pride to the Senior Circuit by snapping the decade of American League wins in the Midsummer Classic. Yet when the sunglassed fox said Pujols was an emergency player Buck's response was the aforementioned chortle instead of the responsible "What the fuck are you doing, Tony? Pujols has been the best hitter in the National League since he hit the major leagues. Shouldn't you get him in the game as early as possible so that he can take some hacks and help you win?"
But La Russa didn't do that nor did he use him with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning of a one-run game. Instead Aaron Rowand got the last shot at Francisco Rodriguez and flew out to end the game and give home field advantage to the AL. Now history tells you that Pujols is the guy to hit in that spot and, even though he's not having his best season, the first three months of this year tell you that it's Pujols to win. As always La Russa decided to zig when every other manager in the sport would zag and his team suffered for it. As noted Cardinal-phile Will Leitch points out this morning the best thing that happened to the Cards last fall was the injuries that forced La Russa to play conservatively. You know what happened next.
We've offered La Russa very little quarter this season and have pointed out that it's probably time for him to go to dance recitals and save puppies full time when the season comes to an end. Now he's pissed off his best player for no reason although he claims Pujols should know better.
"Albert was the guy who was going to do whatever we needed," said La Russa. "If Albert doesn't understand that, I'm surprised and disappointed. It isn't that tough a thing. I explained his role to him before the game."
A single wins the game, Tony. Just a pedestrian commonplace nubber up the middle. You're the one who doesn't understand, not Pujols. If it had been a double switch or a chance to use four relievers to get two outs you would have been all over it but a simple single was beneath you. Last night reinforced the feeling that baseball's become too much for La Russa. When you're too consumed with looking smart than you are with winning games you aren't helping anybody including yourself.
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