Subject: Albert Pujols

• Albert's Ace

  February 9, 2007

• Pujols Remarks Lost in Translation?

  November 30, 2006

• Chez Pujols

  September 18, 2006

• Which Cardinal Has the Longest Dinger?

  August 31, 2007

• Dream Team Builder: Pujols or A-Rod?

  January 10, 2008

• Live Blogging from the Old Ballyard

  March 31, 2008

• Cards Blog: The Colossus Awakens

  April 10, 2008

• Cards Blog: Pujols Finally Gets Some Rest

  May 9, 2008

• Cards Blog: Pujols Finally Gets Some Rest

  May 9, 2008

• Cards Blog: The Colossus Awakens

  April 10, 2008

• Live Blogging from the Old Ballyard

  March 31, 2008

• Dream Team Builder: Pujols or A-Rod?

  January 10, 2008

• Which Cardinal Has the Longest Dinger?

  August 31, 2007

• Pujols Remarks Lost in Translation?

  November 30, 2006

• Baseball Card of the Week: Howard, Pujols Battle for MVP

  September 26, 2008

• 2008 MVP Albert Pujols Shafted by the Media -- Again

  They're at it again. On Monday, November 17, the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) announced that Albert Pujols had won the 2008 National League Most Valuable Player Award. The announcement was followed, of course, by a spirited round of bleating from the sports press -- who are, let us not forget, the baseball writers of America. While Pujols' margin of victory was decisive, it was by no means unanimous. So you'd figure there'd be some carping/hair-splitting/meta-analysis. Of c

  November 20, 2008

• How 'Bout a Name for That Proposed Pro Soccer Team? Suggest One

  Is everyone out there as excited as I am to see St. Louis getting a Major League Soccer team? I can't hear you! I said, are you psyched? (Puts hand to ear, listens intently for sounds of cheering.) Huh. Well, maybe you guys are just all used up from the massive celebrations that have been going on ever since Albert the Great announced he was joining the group of investors hoping to lure an MLS franchise to the Gateway City. Wait, what's that you say? There haven't been any celebrations, mass

  November 20, 2008

• Review Preview: The Good Pie

  Massimo Finizio, via Wikimedia Commons This week I visit the Good Pie, the new Neapolitan-style pizza restaurant in Midtown.One day, when I'm an old, retired restaurant critic, as fat as a zeppelin and hobbled by gout, I'll throw the grandkids into the hovercar and take them on a tour of St. Louis pizza past. I'll show them the Mixed Martial Arts arena where the first Imo's once stood and the Francis Slay Spaceport atop the Hill. We'll pay our respects at the memorial to the victims of the Prove

  February 16, 2009

• Miscues: Local Cardinals Media Round-Up

  Friends, I think you'll all agree that, in general, I'm a pretty positive guy. A ray of sunshine in an otherwise overcast land of --What? You don't agree with that? You say that I'm bitter, nasty, sarcastic, and rather appalling human being in general?Alright. Fair enough. That's probably closer to the truth. I am kind of a bastard most of the time. I can't really help it, you know? Just the way things are. And so, in the spirit of continuing to be a bastard to just about everyone, I would

  March 26, 2009

• The Daily RFT mourns Mickey Carroll, looks into a report of police brutality and catches up with Catherine Hanaway

  May 20, 2009

• The Times, They Are A-Changin'

  But St. Louis sportswriters unapologetically cast MVP ballots

  November 16, 2005

• Literacy Is Not Trivial

  October 18, 2006

• Hungry Hombre

  Step up to the plate at Albert Pujols' new restaurant.

  November 15, 2006

• Oblique Strain

  When a blogger fingered him in the Jason Grimsley scandal, strength coach Chris Mihlfeld found himself in a world of pain.

  July 12, 2006

• Talkin' Baseball

  Matching the playoff-rockin' Cardinals with some appropriate tunes

  October 5, 2005

• News to Muse

  The Year in Review: A Quiz

  December 29, 2004

• Best Sports Bargain

  Upper Terrace Reserve ticket

  September 29, 2004

• Bleed Cardinal Red

  See Redbirds in January at the eighth annual St. Louis Cardinals Winter Warm-Up

  January 14, 2004

• Best Cardinals Player

  Albert Pujols

  September 24, 2003

• Best Cardinal

  Albert Pujols

  September 25, 2002

• Best Cardinal

  September 26, 2001

• The Stats On Pujols' "I-popping" Homer Last Night

  Wikimedia CommonsLast night Albert Pujols proved once again that he is no mere mortal, as he clubbed a rocket of a home run into Big Mac Land at Busch Stadium, helping the Cards to a 3-1 victory and an oh-so-sweet sweep of the Cubs.Like McGwire's famed "Band-Aid" blast at the old ballpark or Mickey Mantle's legendary dent on the upper-deck façade at Yankee Stadium, El Hombre's Herculean homer left a mark for all to see: He broke the light that illuminates the "I" in Big Mac Land, a feat the P

  May 22, 2009

• Postgame Thoughts, 18th June: Double You. Tee. Eff.

  -Okay, so Jo-El Pineiro crapped the bed quite mightily in the first inning, but he certainly had some help from the defense. Just an ugly inning all around, the sort that we really haven't seen too many of from the Cards lately. Typing that, I find myself a bit surprised, to be quite honest. It hadn't even really occurred to me until just now that the Cardinal defense has improved markedly from where it was earlier this season. I still think Skippy Schumaker is hurting the team at second ba

  June 19, 2009

• Inside Baseball: A tour of St Louis landmarks from the famous to the infamous (and everything in between)

  July 8, 2009

• Map Locations At A Glance: Restaurants

  July 8, 2009

• Game Notes: Cardinals 5, Brew Crew 0, 7th July

  -- I think that may have been the Cards' best win of the year so far. Facing the staff ace of their chief rival for the division, playing the first game of a truly pivotal three-game series, and they come up big, even sans Albert heroics. Too often, this team only performs when Albert Pujols puts them on his shoulders; outstanding to see the guys batting on either side of him in the lineup make their contributions count. 

  July 8, 2009

• All-Star Game Opening Ceremony Highlights for the ADD-Addled

  Did the sweeping music of the All-Star game's opening ceremonies lull you to sleep? Did the "All-Stars Among Us" video bore you to tears, or just cause you to change the channel? Did all that talking by MC Joe Buck aggravate you? If so -- but you still want to catch up on a bit o' baseball history that happened right here in St. Louis tonight -- here's your rundown, courtesy of a television that's older than the American League's winning streak.Ryan Franklin and his beard are introduced.

  July 14, 2009

• The Cardinals Second Half Preview

  First, and most importantly, you'll have to forgive the lack of a clever title. I thought and thought, then thought some more, and really just didn't like any of the options I came up with. Some were too obscure, some not obscure enough, some didn't make much sense, still others lacked any tie to the subject at hand. Thus, in the interest of clarity, I give you this dull and lifeless title. Nonetheless, I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive. Second, does it bother anyone else that

  July 17, 2009

• "The Most Perfect Player Who Ever Did Live"

  Wikimedia CommonsIf you haven't already read Joe Posnaski and Bill James' Sports Illustrated cover story from last week on Albert Pujols, well, what else are you doing on a Monday morning. Working?In what was probably the best piece of writing/analysis to come out of All-Star week, James makes the claim (then does his best to debunk it) that Pujols is, at this point in his career, the most perfect player in baseball history--statistically speaking, of course.Highlights include this:

  July 20, 2009

• Review Preview: Eclipse

  Without meaning to do so, I timed this week's review of Eclipse, the restaurant in the new Moonrise Hotel, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Synergy! Or something. I should be living on the moon by now. I should have my own sleek condo atop a glass tower overlooking the Sea of Tranquility Golf Course, with a launch pad for my jetcopter and a wisecracking robot to do the housework. For fun I would put on my spacesuit and go to the low-gravity batting cage to hit a few bal

  July 20, 2009

• Sky's the Limit: When Joe Edwards opens a moon-themed hotel and restaurant in the Loop, hopes are high

  July 22, 2009

• Classy Phils Fan Uses Cutting-Edge Laser Pointer to Distract Cardinals Players

  During today's game in Philadelphia, a Phillies fan (presumably) used a laser pointer to distract Julio Lugo. Laser pointers, the hottest gadget trend in recent memory of 1995, apparently are still very big with some Phils fans. The only upside? Tim McCarver gets flustered on air. ("Thats absurd!" Yes it is, Tim.)Just watch: After Lugo struck out, the same fan (presumably) promptly provided an encore when Albert Pujols stepped to the plate. When Pujols, who like Lugo stepped out when the la

  July 25, 2009

• Game Notes: Cardinals 12, Metropolitans 7 04/08/2009 - The Return of the King

  -- Albert Pujols is back, and the Mang is pissed. Oh yes, we all doubted, we all feared, we all wondered what was wrong. We found ourselves, in our darkest moments, questioning whether or not Albert was still the player we all thought he was. We looked to a new idol, to a man named Holliday, and we have angered the Mang. There will be no mercy. This gathering was broken up shortly after the photo was taken by an Albert Pujols home run. ​

  August 5, 2009

• Sitting Behind Shaq Sucks

  Spotted during the telecast of tonight's St. Louis Cardinals game, the poor guy who gets the seat behind the seven-foot-one-inch tall Shaquille O'Neal.

  August 11, 2009

• Photos: Shaquille O'Neal, Albert Pujols at the Four Seasons

  Photo: Nick LucchesiThe entire press conference was filmed to be included in the television series.​To hype his upcoming reality show Shaq VS., Shaquille O'Neal, the 17-year NBA icon, mixed friendly smack-talk and humble sentiments at the opportunity to face Albert Pujols in a home run derby Thursday afternoon in O'Fallon, Missouri."St. Louis, Michigan, how are you?" O'Neal joked after sitting down at the conference table, positioned on the shadeless rooftop of the Four Seasons hotel downtown.

  August 12, 2009

• An Extension for El Piñata?

  Sure, he hasn't actually pitched like a piñata this year, but it's just too good a nickname to stop now. ​Apparently, Joel Piñeiro really wants to stick around with the Cardinals a while longer. He has reportedly told his agent to get a deal done that will keep him here if at all possible. Seems like a nice story, right? Piñeiro reinvents himself as a pitcher, becoming one of the top sinker-ballers in the league, then signs a nice deal to stay with the team -- and coaching staff --

  September 16, 2009

• Back In the Saddle (Hopefully, Anyway)

  For the past couple of weeks, I've been feeling really kind of rough. Not sick, necessarily, but just not all that well. Every few days, I would feel a little better, but then the next day it would be right back down. I had a hell of a time mustering the wherewithall to complete much of anything. No energy, kind of just icky, you know? I didn't think too much of it at the time; just the cost of doing business when you've got too many hours worth of work to get into the day.So anyway, I spent the

  October 7, 2009

• Albert Pujols' Comments Lost in Translation -- Again?!

  Wikimedia Commons​Near the end of 2006, a tempest boiled over in the local sports teapot when Albert Pujols, in an interview with reporters in his native Dominican Republic, opined that maybe he, and not Ryan Howard, was entitled to that season's Most Valuable Player award, by virtue of the fact that Pujols' St. Louis Cardinals reached the postseason that year and Howard's Philadelphia Phillies didn't.The thing was, when the story washed up on American shores, the English-language media spun i

  October 19, 2009

• Let the Panic Begin: Albert Pujols to Have Elbow Surgery

  Well, we all knew it was coming eventually. Just a matter of time, really. Of course, knowing it was inevitable that Albert Pujols' balky elbow would eventually necessitate a surgical fix doesn't make it any easier to swallow when said inevitability becomes a reality. Albert is going under the knife today to have five bone spurs removed from his troublesome right elbow, and there is a very real chance this may just be the first of many surgeries. (And by the way, make sure you read the comm

  October 21, 2009

• Albert Pujols Says Comments Were Indeed Lost in Translation -- Again!

  Last week here at Daily RFT we took a look at a recent interview St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols gave to a Dominican radio station and, more precisely, explained that Pujols' comments were inaccurately spun by the U.S. press, nationally and locally.Wikimedia Commons | shgmom56El Hombre, misunderstood All-Star​In a nutshell, somewhere in the translation from Spanish to English, Pujols inexplicably cold-shouldered the Cardinals' widely anticipated off-season efforts to ink a contract e

  October 29, 2009