Venable Makes Contact With Pujols' Man Purse carrying Arm

When I was watching the Padres play the Cardinals on Saturday night I took note of a particular play involving Albert Pujols and the Padres' Will Venable. Venable had hit a hard grounder to 1B and Pujols fielded it cleanly, decided to make the play on his own, and ran towards first.....but he did not run that fast. As he crossed over the bag a blazing Venable burst threw the picture nearly beating Pujols for an infield single. Two things struck me about this play:

1. How hard Venable had run out what seemed to be a routine grounder which in my opinion is a good thing. With all due respect to the best player on our team (Adrian Gonzalez), he rarely runs hard on ground-balls. Effort is good.
   
2. The second thing was how I really felt that had Pujols been just a split second slower in getting to the bag he genuinely would have deserved to get knocked into next week. You can't lolly-gag through the baseline when your opponent is playing for a job next year. Whatever.....there was no harm so there was no foul....I went to bed.

Now on Sunday afternoon I abandoned the game after Caesar Carillo loaded the bases a second time but upon checking in on the final I saw that there was a bit of an altercation that had taken place. Low and behold.........Pujols and Venable. Will Venable running out a grounder, ducking his shoulder a bit to absorb the tag and then getting the stare-down from King Albert. I watched the video and it's one of the most innocuous bits of contact I've seen between players. I saw Everth Cabrera destroy Cardinal SS Brendan Ryan in trying to break up a double play, and in my opinion, Cabrera had slid too far out of the baseline. Ryan said nothing about it.

Here is an excerpt from padres.com regarding the Pujols/Venable incident:

About the only fireworks came in the sixth inning when Venable topped a ball down the first-base line that St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols picked up and tagged Venable as he ran by. After the play, Venable turned around and saw Pujols staring at him.

"I asked him what his problem was. Anytime that someone stops to stare at you ... you're wondering what his problem is," Venable said. "I certainly don't care enough about Albert Pujols to continue with anything that might cause friction. It's not that big of a deal, just a lot of nothing."

Pujols, apparently, saw it differently, claiming Venable more or less threw an elbow into him as he passed.

"He did. Last night he tried to run me over like he was playing freaking football. A play like that, you don't try to run people over. Next time, if I would have known, I would probably hit him in the face with the glove, tag him right there," said Pujols, who earlier in the game hit his 40th home run of the season.

"He did it last night, and today again, he threw an elbow. And he was out by a lot. It wasn't necessary, even to avoid a tag. The ground ball that I had, what is he going to do? Try to knock the ball out of my glove? Last night he jammed my wrist a little bit and tonight he tried to throw an elbow. That's pretty stupid."

Venable denied trying to throw an elbow to disrupt the play.

Are you seriously crying about this Albert?

I generally like Albert Pujols. The only thing I've really heard bad about him (I think it was him) is that he tends to eyeball umpires a bit when he gets a strike call against him; kind of a "Do you know who I am? If I didn't swing it's not a strike!", air about him. His above quotes make him sound like a crybaby. Grow a pair and go after Venable if you think he was trying to hurt you. Don't give a man the ol' "Do you know who I am?", stare. You're asking for a fight then.

Good on ya Will Venable. Keep playing hard. Don't take sh*t from anyone especially Albert Pujols

"Fu*k Albert Pujols and his man purse!", said Will Venable (or something to that effect)

Video of Sunday afternoon incident [Padres.com]

Pujols with the sacks full in 2009

Albert Pujols with the bases loaded in 2009:

1. 9 ABs
2. 7 Hits
3. 5 HRs
4. 24 RBI

Really? Shouldn't he be getting the free pass with the bases loaded? Unconventional to be sure but it's not without precedent....Barry used to get the IBB.

Those daring managers still in business?

Editor's Note:
As always, when discussing Albert Pujols, I'd be remiss if I did not mention that I saw him walking in the Gaslamp back in 2006.....he was carrying a Louis Vitton man purse.....the most dangerous hitter in the game.....man purse.

Enshrinement at Cooperstown: Humans Yes/Machines and Cyborgs No

This is a Treatise on the Acceptance of Machines/Cyborgs as Entertainers on the Baseball Diamond with Strict Assurances that they be Prohibited from Hall of Fame Enshrinement at Cooperstown Under the Fundamental Premise that their Records were Scientifically Attained.

If Albert Pujols is in fact a machine how will we, as fans, react?

Even though they are described as some of the most knowledgeable fans in the game, I know how Cardinal fans will react. They will claim him as their own, much like Dodger fans have given unwavering support to Manny Ramirez despite the fact that he was guilty of cheating. If Pujols is a construct of steel and wires then clearly this is a breach of Major League Baseball's rules.........or perhaps the Players' Association cleverly negotiated some sort of exemption into the collective bargaining agreement for cases where a player is driven by wattage and a flux capacitor.

In any case, Albert Pujols being of cyborg ancestry is of little consequence to this fan enjoying a game of baseball. However because he is not real I am not compelled to acknowledge his accomplishments as real.........and under the above hypothetical he would be precluded from entering the Hall of Fame.......because, you know, the HOF is for Human Beings who have accomplished milestones with legitimacy. It would be troublesome to celebrate something that surpassed all of the legends in the history of our great game when it was done in a fashion that was enhanced through revolutionary science.....that's just me, though.

We must also discuss the very real possibility that Albert the Pujols may eliminate Adrian Gonzalez in next week's All Star Game Home Run Derby........at which point we would have to file a complaint with the commissioner's office on the grounds that a human should rightfully hold the Derby Trophy aloft.

Discuss amongst yourselves. Is this manifesto to harsh as it relates to the impact science has on the record books?

Editor's Note:
I think this commercial is hilarious and had no intention of going in this direction as I merely wanted to post the commercial. However I think it is an extraordinarily witty* way of examining questions about Hall of Fame Induction.....questions that The Baseball Writer's Association has tried to answer recently.

*deftly idiotic