A Hearty Congratulations

It's a freezing cold morning morning here in Central, IL. The "feels like" temp. on my walk to work was about 10F. (On a side note, is there anything more ridiculous than the "feels like" tempurature? nevermind) Despite the cold, we do have baseball news. All of us here at Country Roads would like to extend a hearty congratulations to Albert Pujols, National League MVP.

From Matthew Leach's write up on the Cardinals website:

Albert Pujols' magnificent season earned him his second NL Most Valuable Player Award. Pujols' 369 points bested the 308 points garnered by Philadelphia's Ryan Howard, who beat him out by a narrow margin to win the 2006 MVP.

Pujols has finished in the top 10 in the voting in every one of his eight Major League seasons, and has been fourth or better seven times. He is the 11th player to win two NL MVP Awards, and he's one of three active players with a pair of MVPs.

Pujols is truly one of the greatest players in baseball and it's nice to see him getting recognition, even after a fourth place finish from the Cards (should I say something here about the Cards winning the same amount of play-off games as the Cubs? ah, better not...). His numbers speak for themselves, but his work ethic and attitude that he brings to the game elevate him from a player with good numbers, to a great baseball player. He doesn't "throw away" at bats. He is more than a homerun hitter, he's a great hitter and baserunner, if you follow me there. He's a defensive asset at first base.

At the risk of sounding like a bit of a hero worshipper... He's a great guy too, or certainly appears to be, I don't actually know him personally.

Additionally, Pujols became the third player, along with Sammy Sosa in 1998 and Rod Carew in 1977, to win the MVP and the Roberto Clemente Award in the same year.

Pujol's comments on being awarded the National League MVP:

"I have to thank my teammates," Pujols said at a news conference at Busch Stadium on Monday afternoon. "Obviously this is not an award that you win by yourself. My teammates were involved every day, day in and day out, supporting me, getting on base and driving me in. These kinds of numbers, you can't do it by yourself."

For you Cardinal fans, this award (and the previous MVP award he won in 2005) puts Albert in some great company,

... Musial had been the only Cardinal to win the award at least twice.

In the history of the award, 13 Cardinals have won a combined 16 times. In addition to Pujols and Musial, Willie McGee, Keith Hernandez, Joe Torre, Bob Gibson, Orlando Cepeda, Ken Boyer, Marty Marion, Mort Cooper, Joe Medwick, Dizzy Dean and Frankie Frisch all garnered MVP honors.

Congratulations to Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals. Here's looking forward to 2009.

~ Gabriel