La Russa Crazy, Selig Undecided

By Justin Albers
Basketballss132002@yahoo.com
CLEVELAND- When Tony La Russa decided to bring along his Gold Glove first baseman, Albert Pujols, I imagined he’d get in within the first four innings. But we didn’t see him in the fourth, or the fifth, or even the ninth.
What was Tony La Russa thinking? Albert Pujols finished second behind Prince Fielder in All-Star voting for first basemen, and yet he never saw the field. Even in the ninth inning with the game on the line, Pujols remained in the dugout. After the Mariners J.J, Putz walked J.J. Hardy, Francisco Rodriguez came in and walked Derrek Lee and Orlando Hudson. That meant Aaron Rowand had a chance to bat with the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the ninth. Rowand flied out and the game was over. After all the times Pujols won the game for La Russa in the past, he never even got a chance here.
"It's the All-Star Game. He can do what he wants," Pujols said Tuesday night. "He does whatever he wants. If I wasn't expecting to play, I wouldn't have come up here."
I don’t know what La Russa’s strategy was here, or if he even had one. Maybe he thinks an angry Albert will ignite his home run hitting and ultimately the team. But I think this will have a negative result, something the Cardinals clearly do not need right now.
All the talk lately has surrounded Barry Bonds and whether or not Bud Selig will attend his game the night he breaks the record. I have heard it explained in every which way, but let me tell you right now, it means absolutely nothing. The media can make it what they want, but it does not matter if Selig shows his face or not. Everybody already knows how he feels about Bonds and the record, so simply coming to a baseball game is not going to change that. Besides the fact that if he were to be seen on the big screen, he would probably be booed. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not but more and more people are coming over to Bonds’ side. Through all of these troubles, and all the cameras following him around, Bonds continues to control himself in such a manner that is making America forget about what he has done.
Major League Baseball currently has some angry folks, but everybody has to be angry sometime, right? Besides, if everybody was happy then it really wouldn’t be competition.