Shit

By the sound of it Albert Pujols may have just ruptured his Achilles tendon.

For fuck's sake....

It probably bothered Ms. Young, too

This was the headline the Post-Dispatch chose for the game story about Thursday night's assault on the San Diego Padres: "Pujols: 'It did bother me.'" The headline for the same story on Stltoday.com was "Pujols: 'It's tough. It's real tough.'"

Let's look past the pronoun 'it,' lonely without any antecedent to claim for its own in either headline. Instead, let us ask ourselves whether the lede of this story should be El Hombre's reaction to his line drive hitting Padre pitcher Chris Young.

In the story's third paragraph, we learn that

The gruesome aftermath traumatized Pujols, who admitted having little desire for the remaining innings of his team's 11-3 win.

And we have to wait until the sixth paragraph to discover

Young suffered a fractured and lacerated nose but never lost consciousness. He was assisted from the field and taken by ambulance to a local hospital where he remained overnight.

Umm, I'm all for the hometown paper covering the hometown team from a hometown angle, but is Albert's losing the will-to-play-on really more important than the extent of Young's injuries? This is not to say that Pujols' reaction isn't important--it absolutely is. But the headline's job is to identify the story's core. I mean, hitting someone with a line drive might indeed be tough, but not, I suspect, nearly as tough as being hit by a line drive.

Don't Mess With Albert

The man's a wrecking ball:

It’s hard to imagine things getting worse for the hapless San Diego Padres.

They did.

One day after reigning NL Cy Young winner Jake Peavy was placed on the disabled list, pitcher Chris Young and catcher Josh Bard sustained injuries that knocked them out of Wednesday night’s 11-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Young and Bard were injured within a span of two batters in the third inning. Young had his nose broken and cut when Albert Pujols lined a shot off his face in the third inning that sent blood streaming down the front of his jersey. Bard sprained his left ankle on a play at the plate when Pujols slid into his leg.

“When I hit it, I thought it was going over his head,” Pujols said. “But it hit him right in the face. “There was blood all over the place and I began to pray about it and make sure it was all right.”

...

After a few minutes of sitting on the grass, Young walked off holding a bandage on his face with blood on the front of his jersey.

“It was a pretty tough night,” Pujols said. “After that, I couldn’t concentrate on my other at-bats. I kind of had flashbacks thinking about that at-bat.”

Pujols’ shot ricocheted to the left side of the infield for a single and loaded the bases with one out. After Cla Meredith replaced Young, Ludwick’s grounder knocked in one run and advanced the runners. Glaus then lined a single to right to score Miles to put St. Louis up 3-2.

Brian Giles’ throw arrived at the plate at the same time as Pujols, who slid and caught Bard’s left leg. Bard went down and stayed on the ground for a few minutes before he was helped off the field, dragging his leg.

“It’s a pretty tough night to take,” Giles said.

There was nothing dirty about the play at the plate. Bard got his foot in an awkward place and couldn't block the plate with the bulk of his body. Albert just slid over his outstretched foot which rolled pretty severely. I guess it isn't broken, but they are putting Bard on the DL anyway.

You don't like to see anyone get hurt, but if Albert was gonna have a night like this couldn't he have been playing the Cubs?

Is This Pie Or A Play At The Plate?

Leo Durocher's Porno Money Shot

From a P-D article:

At issue is whether Pujols could have slid around Towles instead of through Towles to score Tuesday night. Towles said he gave Pujols "enough of the plate" to get around. The Cardinals didn't see that sliver. They teach the catcher to give a slice of the plate for the runner to slide toward.

La Russa contends Pujols did as he was instructed.

"I thought Albert did (Towles) a favor by just sliding to take his legs out," he said. "The kid is not giving anything to slide at, so that's what we teach — to slide in and take the legs out. He's going to get blasted one of these days."

The talk about slivers and slices and paths to the plate sounds more like a nursery rhyme or James Joyce novel than a baseball discussion. I cannot believe that I've never heard this shit before.

I've played a lot of sports at very mediocre levels and a few at abysmal levels, though in fairness most of those involved loads of booze, extreme hangovers or combinations thereof. The only place I ever excelled was behind the plate. For some reason, when catching I was tenacious, utterly fearless, and arrogant beyond all measure from the time I was about 8.

I was taught to be aggressive and the rules for blocking the plate are the quintessential example of this. I was told you get a couple of feet up the 3rd base line and plant your left foot towards 3rd with the shin guard as protection and keep your right foot towards the incoming ball. That way if you go down on a knee to catch the ball and brace for impact, your exposed right thigh is back and the left shin guard takes the spikes. Always bluff that the throw is coming on time and on line. If at the last minute it isn't, then get the hell out of the way fast. It isn't your job to keep the runner happy and healthy. He should have been taught to take instructions from the on-deck batter. If he is dumb enough to be suckered by you and slides dangerously or way past the plate and the ball comes in time to tag him, good on you.

If it is on time and on line, brace yourself and take up as much space as possible, but first CATCH AND SECURE THE DAMNED BALL. The hope was always that straight through you was the only path to the plate and they would slide directly into your forward leg, be stopped dead in their tracks and you would simply drop the tag on them. Or, they would come in à la Pete Rose on Ray Fosse. Fair enough, since only one of you had on protective gear and if you secured the ball, the runner was running into the tag. If you are a couple of feet up the line and making yourself large, they have to go so far out of the way to get around you that they have almost no chance of getting back to touch the plate. The idea of giving them a path is jaw-dropping to me.

I know I sound like the 2000 Year Old Man (I guess if that routine is a cultural touchstone for you then you are by definition ancient), but does anyone know when this new technique of offering a path the plate started? I understand the desire to avoid injuries to high priced players in the modern era, but since catchers are usually relatively big, mean and expendable, it seems to me incumbent upon the billion dollar position players like Pujols to avoid the collision. I cannot fathom a catcher (or anyone in baseball) ever being pissed about being taken out with a hard slide on a play at the plate. I don't care if there is a sliver, a slice or all things nice. Taking him down may mean dropping or missing the ball. WTF is the difference between that and the latitude a runner gets for disrupting the double play at second? Unfathomable.

The game has passed me by. Next thing you know they'll announce that rubbing spit and dirt into an injury has no medical value....

Pujols

It might be easy to look at Albert's numbers (and Sunday's glorious finale) and say he's getting back on track. Despite his struggles, his HR and RBI numbers are good, doubly so if you consider his successful protection of Duncan in the lineup as part of his production. However, it worries me that he only seems to be hitting huge mistakes.

What has always blown me away about him is his ability to beat the piss out of pitches that the hurler was trying to make. So many times over the past few years I almost felt sorry for the guy on the mound after Pujols has sent one over the boards or driven a base clearing double into the gap because you know he's sitting out there thinking, "Goddamn it! I just made exactly the pitch I wanted and he STILL sent my ERA trough the roof."

That isn't happening this year. His Ks bear this out too, I think. Hopefully, Rolen's resurrection behind him will let him contract his strike zone and get him back to previous form soon.