Greed and Gluttony - What Will the Children Think?

It was will great disappointment and anger that I observed the Albert Pujols fiasco unfold. Greed and gluttony, what will the children think? That was my amazed and traumatic reaction. After all, I have watched Albert Pujols during at least five spring trainings in Jupiter, Florida and have thought he cared a lot about the children who followed him as great and growing fans.

He did not.

In the end, nothing mattered as far as loyalty was concerned. He did not care about the children. He was not a role model. He was not a hero. He cared about money. How much money does one man need?

As someone who has worked with children for many years, I know they need role models to follow. They need heroes.

Albert Pujols is neither of these. He is a fallen hero.

It is sad because he could have followed in the footsteps of Stan Musial.

He did not.

So sad to see a lost opportunity.

Greed and gluttony...what will the children think?

I hope the St. Louis Cardinals soon will give out number 5 to another player. We do not want to keep bad memories of the player who has dishonored that number this week. Perhaps a new number 5 will grant us good memories as St. Louis Cardinals fans!

Fallen heroes do not.


.

End of Baseball Season Marks a Sad Day

As some of you already know, I am a fanatical baseball fan. Today is the last day of the regular baseball season, and I feel very sad to have the season end.

The St. Louis Cardinals are my team and they didn't even make the playoffs--which would prolong the season for me. On paper, they were a great team. They have two of the game's greatest hitters--Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday. They had three of the game's best pitchers--Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, and Jaime Garcia. Wainwright is up for consideration for the Cy Young Award. Garcia might get consideration for Rookie of the Year.

Still, that was not enough. The team had injuries--lots of them, to their pitchers, and to their third baseman, David Freese who was eventually out for the season.

The Cardinals were expected to win their division championship. Instead, team members are headed back home. As in other things in life, if you are going to be a champion, you have to play the games and you have to win them.

Fate got in the way. I'm counting the days until the start of spring training!

Taking Chances, Making Choices

Albert Pujols bats in spring training, Sikes photo

On Tuesday night when St. Louis Cardinals coach Jose Oquendo halted Randy Winn as he rounded third base, Albert Pujols was visibly upset. It was the top of the ninth inning when Winn stopped running and the Pujols hit that could have resulted in the tying run did not. Pujols, the greatest player in baseball today, wouldn't have stopped. We've watched him go through Oquendo's stop sign on many occasions. He would have taken a chance Tuesday and scored. When the next two batters popped out, the game ended and the Cardinals lost 4 to 3 to the last place Pittsburgh Pirates. Winn's choice resulted in a Cardinals loss that could mean the difference between them going to the playoffs and perhaps the World Series or going home at the beginning of October.

Sometimes we need to take chances to get ahead in life or even to make our lives interesting. I think of Janet Evanovich who had a nice little writing career as a mid-list author of series books for Loveswept. I was surprised when Evanovich suddenly stopped writing for the romance line and took a year off to create the first of her Stephanie Plum novels. She had a dream of being rich and famous and she made that dream come true by taking a big chance in her career.

We make choices every day. Most of them don't require taking a big chance, but some of them do. Many writers and artists as well don't take a chance when they should.

Write something different; write the book of your heart. Experiment with your painting; use untried materials; develop a new style.

Life is too short not to take a few chances. Are you willing to try?