Many have wondered why Pujols decided to leave St. Louis, a city where he was adored by baseball-crazy fans.

Well, Pujols’ wife, Diedre Pujols, gave a little insight into Albert’s decision during a recent interview with a St. Louis-area Christian radio station.

“When it all came down, I was mad. I was mad at God because I felt like all the signs that had been being played out through the baseball field, our foundation, our restaurant, the Down Syndrome Center, my relationships, my home, my family close,” Diedre Pujols told the station. “I mean, we had no reason, not one reason, to want to leave. People were deceived by the numbers.”

She indicated the key moment was the Cardinals’ initial offer of five years and $130 million.

“When you have somebody say ‘We want you to be a Cardinal for life’ and only offer you a five-year deal, it kind of confused us,” Diedre Pujols said. “Well, we got over that insult and felt like Albert had given so much of himself to baseball and into the community … we didn’t want to go through this again.”

Apparently the Cardinals “insulting” offer had the poor Mrs. Pujols questioning her faith. How could the Pujols family ever survive this hardship? Only 130 million? How will she feed her family? Why does God do BAD things to GOOD people?? WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN DIEDRE PUJOLS, LORD?

And there’s no way she could EVER imagine going through difficult ordeal of having several professional baseball organizations throw millions and millions of dollars at her husband in an effort to convince him to play a game for a living. People with cancer must think they have it made when they hear of the struggles that Mr. and Mrs. Pujols have had to endure through this difficult free agency process.

Please…someone insult me with a $130 million dollar offer to play a game. Shit…for that amount of money, I’ll do a lot less enjoyable jobs than play baseball. I will do unspeakable things for that amount of money.

Diedre Pujols later went on to say this…

“It’s just like God,” she said at the end of the interview, “to put us on a team called the Angels.”

OHHH PLEEEEASE!!!…Even Tim Tebow thinks this statement is ridiculous. I find it highly unlikely that God used his divine intervention to put the Angels in a better position to win the pennant. Those types of stories only happen in the movies (and Denver Broncos games)…and they already made that film. Perhaps this will be the sequel to Angels in the Outfield. We’ll call it Angels at the Bargaining Table.

A few years ago, Benson was insanely hot (see picture to the left). So when I heard she was going to be on this show, it peaked my interest, albeit momentarily. Unfortunately, I was stunned to see the way she looks now…

Apparently, just like her husband’s pitching career, she peaked many years ago and is WELL past her prime. The other wives aren’t much better. They all look like they are strung out on crack or have an eating disorder (Anna Benson has the opposite problem). You would think professional baseball players would be able to pull better pieces of ass. I made it through about ten minutes of this show and turned it off.

It’s time to neglect your responsibilities and ignore your girlfriend because you have a lot of TV watching to do. With college football on Saturdays, NFL football on Sundays and the MLB playoffs just about every day, there isn’t much time for anything else.

When it comes to sports, there is really no other month that compares. For instance, as I publish this today, there are 3 MLB playoff games and an entire slate of NFL games. With football and baseball being my two favorite sports, I have some tough decisions to make. I literally need about 4 televisions in my living room. It’s fantastic. Since football and baseball are also our country’s two most popular sports, it’s likely you feel the same way.

Some may claim March is the best sports month. But outside of March Madness, there really isn’t much going on. And really, March Madness is only exciting during the opening weekend. After that, your bracket is totally fucked and you lose interest.

Others may claim that February is the top sports month. I don’t see how that’s possible. Sure you have the biggest game of the year in February. Super Bowl betting is always fun. Yet after that first weekend, you have a pretty quiet month.

One could also make an argument for June. The NHL and NBA finals are going on, while baseball is in full swing. That might be the best argument, but it’s hard to make that case when the NFL, our country’s most popular league, is in the offseason.

That’s why I say we are in the midst of the best sports time of the year. So enjoy it! If you disagree, leave a comment and tell me what month you think is better and why.

The truth is, there is nothing anyone can do to makes these games more exciting. All-Star games in any sport are nothing but a glorified, overly drawn out exhibition game.

All-Star games used to be exciting many years ago because sports coverage was very regionalized. Fans could usually only watch games of their local team. To follow the other teams in the league, you either had to read the newspaper or wait till the end of the news broadcast for a sports anchor to scroll scores across the screen.

The All-star game used to be one of the few opportunities a fan would have to see some of the game’s best players. Let’s say you were a fan of a National League team in the 80s. Your only chance to see American League stars such as Don Mattingly or Roger Clemens play was during the All-Star Game. This isn’t the case anymore.

Now watching any team play in any sport is fairly easy. All you need to do now is have an internet connection or purchase a package from your television provider. With features such as MLB.TV or NFL Sunday Ticket, fans can watch games from anywhere in the country.

When you take away the allure of watching star players that fans rarely get to see, then all-star games turn into a snooze fest. The Pro Bowl is anti-climactic because its at the end of the season, no one plays defense in the NBA All-Star Game, the MLB All-Star game takes four hours to play and Americans don’t care about meaningful hockey games, let alone an all-star game.

Even the other events surrounding all-star games have lost their luster. The Home Run Derby is three hours of batting practice and the Slam Dunk contest is boring because every dunk has already been done.

Now because of this, it seems like every professional sport is coming up with crazy ways to make the All-Star game more exciting. Every league has tried something drastic to make the game more interesting, such as having the all-star game decide home field advantage in the World Series, putting the Pro Bowl before the Super Bowl instead of after it, or doing a friggin’ fantasy draft.

The truth is none of these ideas can make the game any more interesting because when it comes down to it, all-star games are still meaningless. We need to just accept these games for what they are and stop trying to mess with them.

When it comes down to it, fans of the sports are going to watch the game, while those who are just casual fans probably will not. I watched the baseball all-star game last night, not because it decided home field advantage in the World Series but because I’m a fan of baseball…Also, there is really not much else on TV on a Tuesday night in July.

As I took in a pair of games at historic Wrigley Field, I started to learn why the Cubs haven’t won a series since 1908. Losing has become part of their appeal and their fans have embraced the concept of the “Loveable Losers.” I even saw some kid being interviewed on ESPN saying he’d rather be a Cubs fan than a Yankees fan because “it would be boring to always win.” I’ve been a Yankees fan my whole life. Trust me kid. There is nothing boring about winning.

Cubs fans and their relationship with Wrigley Field is like being in a bad relationship with a beautiful woman. They are blinded by its exterior beauty and can’t see the flaws on the inside.

On the exterior, everything about Wrigley Field looks amazing. The field has a quaint atmosphere of a minor-league park with its ivory-covered brick walls and auxiliary scoreboard. But what you’ll find in the interior are cramped seats, no video board and a trough in a disgusting men’s room where 50 men are pissing simultaneously. Oh yeah…and the team playing inside stinks.

But Cubs fans are blinded by Wrigley Field, just like a man would be blinded by dating a beautiful woman who brings nothing else to the table.

Every game is like a party for Cubs fans, where the outcome isn’t as important as having fun. Remember the crap your parents told you after losing a game in Little League, that it’s not important if you won or lost, as long as you had fun? It seems like Cubs fans live by that notion. The result is a side note to getting drunk and tossing beach balls around. I can see why Wrigley Field is called “The Friendly Confines”: Because the park is too small and their fans are wimps (except for the teenage girl that called my 63-year old father a “faggot Yankees fan”). Obnoxious Yankees fans were scattered all over that park, talking shit at every opportunity and most Cubs fans just sat there and took it. Even when the Cubs won on Friday, they failed to seize a rare opportunity to talk trash. Maybe that’s the difference between New Yorkers and Chicagoans. Perhaps they are just too polite to say anything.

As the team with 27 World Series Championships took two-out-of three from a team who hasn’t won a title in over 100 years, it became clear which city had the better baseball team. But when it comes to other important aspects, Chicago holds its own against New York City. Though I was only there a few days, I took in a good amount of the city and have drawn some key comparisons between Chicago and New York.

Cleanliness and Attractiveness
I did a lot of exploring through downtown Chicago on two hot days and it was nice to walk through a city without having the smell of rotting garbage penetrate my nostrils. The city is beautiful and cleaner than Manhattan and the skyline is just as breathtaking as the New York City skyline, if not more. Millenium Park is a gorgeous spot as well.
Advantage: Chicago

Friendliness
People in Chicago are WAY friendlier than people in New York. Most people in New York are miserable assholes. Just about everyone I dealt with in Chicago greeted me with a smile and usually started a friendly conversation.
Advantage: Chicago

Nightlife
In New York City, there is pretty much a bar on every corner. In Chicago it’s a little harder to find a good bar. Though there are plenty of bars in Chicago, New York City makes the Windy City look like a dry town.
Advantage: New York City

Traffic
The traffic in both cities blows.
Advantage: push

Girls
I was very impressed with the quality of women in Chicago. There were beautiful women everywhere I went. However, there wasn’t much diversity with the ladies. Chicago featured mostly regular white girls, with a handful of attractive Spanish and black chicks. New York City has beautiful woman of all races. It’s a veritable melting pot of sweet pussy. If you apply yourself in New York, you could sleep with a woman from every continent and it probably wouldn’t be all that difficult.
Advantage: Slight edge to New York City

Pizza
Sorry Chicagoans. Deep dish pizza doesn’t hold a candle to New York pizza. I treated myself to some famous deep dish Pizza at Gino’s East, which supposedly is the best place to get deep dish pizza in Chicago. It was even featured on an episode of Man vs. Food.

The idea of eating pizza with a fork and knife just felt dirty to me (and Jon Stewart would agree). I did not find the pizza as good as New York pizza and at the end of dinner all I had to show for my meal was a bad case of indigestion.
Advantage: New York

Overall
Chicago is a great city and I will definitely be back. Is it better than New York? Well I’m a little biased as a native New Yorker. So I’d say probably not. What are your thoughts? Any objective opinions here?

Yes you read that sentence correctly.

Allred was reenacting a recent incident involving Atlanta Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell, where McDowell made homophobic slurs and gestures toward some fans.

Take a look at the video…

There is so much to love about this video but here are a few of my favorite parts…

At the 0:47 mark, Allred quotes McDowell by saying “Are you two giving it to each other up the ass?” Except she doesn’t want to say the word ass, so instead she comes up with what sounded like “The crude word for rear-end.”

Then at the 2:00 minute mark, the poor bastard in the pink tie is asked to help demonstrate the lewd gesture that McDowell made to the fans. Then, for what seems like forever, Allred begins simulating sex with a baseball bat through the fingers of Pink Tie Guy, all while two little girls look on in confusion.

At the 2:04 mark, Pink Tie Guy nods in approval to show Allred that she is indeed demonstrating it properly.

Finally, at the 2:15 mark, Allred pauses and then realizes that maybe she hasn’t demonstrated anal sex with a baseball bat for long enough and continues for 14 more excruciatingly awkward seconds.

You could make a case that this press conference was more offensive than Roger McDowell. What are your thoughts?

Since she is a Mets fan and I’m a Yankees fan, we decided to make it interesting with a bet that will spell certain embarrassment for the loser

Meanwhile, sports writers follow the players down South in order to provide news to baseball fans across the country that are hungry to read about baseball after a long winter.

Yet we are still over a month away from any meaningful games so there really isn’t a lot to talk about.  There’s not much going on at Spring Training other than light jogging, pitchers fielding practice and soft tossing.  However, beat writers have to write about something while they are down in Florida and Arizona, so they find ways to turn just about anything into a 1,500-word press release.

I’ve found a number of articles—mostly on MLB.com— where the reporters are desperately reaching for any kind of story. Here are five of the best releases I’ve seen thus far that can barely be called newsworthy.

1. Some Fat Yankee Pitchers Aren’t Quite as Fat; Others are as Fat as Ever

The BIG news around Yankee camp this spring has been about the weight of their pitchers.

Ace hurler C.C. Sabathia claims to have lost 25 pounds because he stopped eating Cap’n Crunch.

“I stopped eating Cap’n Crunch every day,” Sabathia told news reporters Monday morning. “I used to eat that stuff by the box.”

Meanwhile, pudgy relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain has dropped some of that baby fat and put on some muscle during the off-season.

“Obviously, I added muscle,” Chamberlain said. “That just comes from being a man, too. I’m 25 now, not 21.”

Yankee skipper Joe Girardi then really spiced up the Chamberlain story with this quote…

“I think his hairstyle being different is the one thing I noticed first.”

And finally, washed up pitcher Bartolo Colon has not lost any weight at all and is still a fat mess. He can’t keep up with the other fat pitchers when they do cardio, and so the Yankees have put him on an easier running program.

Bartolo Colon hopes that he can take a lesson from fellow overweight pitcher Kenny Powers and get his pitch back…

“Since 2002, I’ve been 250 and up and I’ve been pitching good. The problem is not the weight, it’s the arm.”

You may have been 250 pounds since 2002 but you certainly haven’t been “pitching good” since then.

2. Josh Hamilton Arrives at Camp

MLB.com posted this video as part of a press release, proclaiming that Rangers MVP Josh Hamilton arrived at camp.

THAT’S IT.

Nothing really interesting happened on his way to camp.  He just got there and went through his normal routine.  He got up, drove the car to the stadium, ate an egg and cheese sandwich and drank some coffee.  Then he pinched one out, put his pants on and headed out to the field to jog lightly on the warning track.   Somehow MLB.com managed to make a story out of that.

3. Ryan Rowland- Smith to Switch to Contact Lenses

Hold the presses.  This is front-page news!  A mediocre relief pitcher on a bad team has decided to switch from glasses to contacts.  According to the story, Rowland-Smith of the Houston Astros, has trained hard to prepare for the switch…

“As far as the glasses go, it’s just a distraction,” Rowland-Smith said. “They fog up. I just worked on it this offseason, and on Christmas Day, my sister — she wears contacts — she said, ‘Lets get it done.’ Every day, we worked on it, and I finally got it.”

IT’S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!  All that hard work is paying off.  Rowland-Smith can now stick his finger in his eye with confidence.  There’s been no word on what type of saline solution he will use yet but my sources tell me that he’s leaning towards Bausch & Lomb.

4. Pittsburgh Pirates’ Pitchers Hope to Overcome Suckiness by Working on “Slug” Bunting

The Pittsburgh Pirates are a horrendous baseball franchise.  Even their coach, Clint Hurdle admits this.  Hurdle is hoping they can use the element of surprise as a way to overcome the fact they have little baseball talent.  Executing a slug bunt is one of those methods.

A “slug bunt,” according to MLB.com, is a type of bunt that is executed by showing bunt, drawing the bat back and then trying to chop the ball hard at a defender who is expecting a normal slow-rolling bunt.

“We’re going to have to rely on the skill sets we have — speed, surprise, variety,” Hurdle said.

Notice how Hurdle did not include other key baseball skill sets such as hitting, pitching and fielding.

The Pirates are hopeful this play can add 30 wins to their record and help them become a .500 ball club

and now for my personal favorite story this Spring Training…

5. Kansas City Royals to Practice Despite Rain

It’s the first day of camp for the Royals…and can you believe it, it’s raining! OH NO! The poor baseball players might get wet! What will they do!

Here is what Dick Kaegel, writer for MLB.com, had to say about this potentially tragic story.

“Everyone has arrived in camp, and the Royals’ first full-squad workout is scheduled for Saturday afternoon. But there is rain in the Phoenix-area forecast.”

ALAS! What will the Royals do?

I imagine when Mr. Kaegel was a kid he dreamed of covering a major league baseball team.  Then MLB.com assigned him to cover the Royals.  Just when it couldn’t get worse for Kaegel, he’s told to write a story about the chance of rain on the first day of camp.

Royals manager Ned Yost is confident that his team can handle these trying times, however. He added…

“We have plenty of covered batting cages in which batters and pitchers can practice if the wet stuff comes.”

PHEW…What a relief! I thought some of these players were gonna get wet! Thank GOD they have indoor batting cages.

Spring Training is barely a week old and already theses storylines are out of control. I am counting the days until opening day when reporters can write about actual games.

In this series, I will take an annoying sports cliché and explain exactly why it’s dumb and overused by sports writers who think they know sports, but in actuality, are clueless.

Today’s annoying sports cliché is: “They Wanted it More.”

This phrase is typically thrown out by broadcasters and writers in a game where one team completely outplays another.  To the naked eye it appears that one team just wanted to win more than the other, that the losing team was woefully unprepared and did not give it 110% on every play.  Meanwhile, the winning team fought like they were on the beaches of Normandy, playing every moment like it was a life-or-death situation.  

This makes for an easy storyline the next day.  Rather than taking the time to breakdown the intricacies of the game, the writer will take the easy way out and write a 1,000 word piece knocking the team for having “no heart” and playing “gutless.”

Case in Point #1:  This past Sunday, my New York Jets played an awful game against the Green Bay Packers and lost 9-0 at home.  During the game, the Jets Dustin Keller and Jerricho Cotchery each had a pass ripped from their hands which resulted in an interception. 

The following day, I turned on the local sports radio station, as I do every day during my commute to and from work.  Throughout the day, I heard three different ESPN radio personalities claim that those two plays proved that the Packers just wanted to win more than the Jets.  If they really wanted to win, they wouldn’t have allowed for those passes to be ripped out of their hands.

Are you serious?

Obviously if Dustin Keller was a true warrior he would have summoned his inner Rocky Balboa and willed himself to not only catch the ball, but fight off the other ten defenders and score the go-ahead touchdown.

But he didn’t.

You know why? Because Dustin Keller is a gutless coward and should never be allowed to step foot on the hallowed grounds of East Rutherford, NJ ever again! 

Case in Point #2: In the 2010 American League Division Series, the New York Yankees took on their whipping boys, the Minnesota Twins.  They promptly disposed of the AL Central Champs in three games. 

Following the series, many radio and TV personalities said it appeared that the Yankees just “wanted it more.”

Then a week later, the Yankees got their asses handed to them by the Texas Rangers and these same members of the media claimed the Yankees looked old and uninspired.  The Texas Rangers simply just “wanted it more.” 

WOW.  A lot can happen in a week. The Yankees went from being destined for back-to-back titles, with their Jeter-esque intangibles and their Yankee Stadium mystique to lacking heart against an upstart Texas team that was just hungrier for victory…

Or maybe they just ran into a hot team… or perhaps the Rangers were just better?

As someone who has played baseball on a fairly high level, I can say that very rarely does one team just want to win more than the other. 

I used to pitch in college and I had days where I gave up seven runs in the first inning and I’ve had other games where I’ve pitched two-hit shutouts.  I wanted to win just as much in the game where I got bounced in the first inning.  As I threw meatball after meatball in that game, I’m sure it appeared that I wasn’t into it that day, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. 

Now…have there been times when one team plays uninspired and looks unprepared for a game?  Of course.  There are times when the “they wanted it more” phrase may be accurate.  Yet no writer has any way of knowing this just by watching the game from the press box—and it is most certainly not the case in a playoff series. 

What are your thoughts on this series? Did I give 110 percent or did I lack the fire to make this post enjoyable?