Albert Pujols, Hypocrite

Let me preface this post by saying I respect and admire Cardinals 1B Albert Pujols. He is an amazing baseball talent and will end up being one of the best to ever play the game. His off-the-filed work with charities is worth mentioning and is incredibly noble.

With that said he is a wee-bit of a whiner and, now, a hypocrite. In 2006, the year the Cardinals won the World Series, Phillies 1B Ryan Howard won the NL MVP award over Pujols. When the award was announced, Pujols had this to say

I see it this way: Someone who doesn't take his team to the playoffs doesn't deserve to win the MVP.

Boo-hoo. Sour grapes. Now the tables have turned. Howard, the league leader in HRs and RBIs, takes his team to not only the playoffs but a World Series win and is not selected MVP. He comes in second to a guy (Pujols) not in the playoffs (the Cardinals were 4th in the NL Central). What does Albert say now, two years after complaining about this very situation?

I think the writers made the right choice in 2006. He did deserve it.

Nothing like saying "everything's OK now, nothing to see here" after you win. Hypocrisy in all of its glory.

Do I endorse Howard for MVP this year? No. I wanted Pujols to win it. Why? He was clearly the best INDIVIDUAL. The nonsense about having to take your team to the playoffs is BS. The MVP award is for the INDIVIDUAL. A World Series title is a team thing. Pujols' comments in 2006 were dripping with jealousy and anger. Now he gets a taste of his own medicine and his words come back to bite him.

Oh, and by the way, the Cardinals record in 2006 - the year they won the World Series - was worse than the Phillies that year. Just sayin', Albert.