Angelic Behavior?

Ah, spring training is upon us and it’s a great time to be a St. Louis Cardinals fan. My team’s rise from nowhere last fall to knock off much-favored opponents en route to a thrilling World Series victory remains fresh in my mind.

I’m actually looking forward to this season more than last spring. That’s when Albert Pujols broke off talks with team management about signing a new contract that would have made him a Cardinal for life.

There is little argument that Pujols has had the greatest 11 seasons to start a career of anyone in the history of the game. The three-time Most Valuable Player became an icon in helping the team to reach three World Series. After professing his desire to remain in St. Louis and insisting that it wasn’t about the money, Pujols spurned overtures the Cardinals had been making for two years and in December accepted a contract proffered by the Angels of Anaheim two days earlier.

The Cardinals reportedly had offered to guarantee Pujols $26 million a year for the next five years. He considered that an insult. He wanted a 10-year contract. But no team in its right mind — which apparently exempts the Angels — would offer such a proposal to a player who is 32 years old. The Angels will pay Pujols $12 million this year (compared to the $16 million the Cardinals shelled out last season) but that will mushroom to $30 million annually by the time he hangs up the spikes at age 42 — if he indeed makes it that long.

Anaheim guarantees $254 million to Pujols in a deal laced with incentives that could push the total much higher. The Cardinals showed business sense in not tying up a quarter of the team’s payroll on one player in each of the next 10 seasons. Pujols might be worth it in the next two or three years, but his body likely will wear down long before 2022.

Already he is showing signs of wear and tear, age, and weight gain. He grounded into more double plays than anyone in the league last season, in part because he is slow afoot. That’s not going to get any better as he ages. In fact, nearly all players begin a gradual — sometimes steep — decline around age 32. By then their athletic skills have peaked.

Beyond the money, I’m not sorry to see Pujols go because of his ever-increasing ego. He stands at home plate to admire a home run ball he hits —although sometimes it hits off the wall and he barely makes it to second base. Or his surly attitude that is apparent in any interview after a good game. He seems joyless, ungrateful and ungracious. For the past several seasons he has become the elephant in the Cardinals clubhouse. No one, including the manager, dared offend him, on or off the field.

Tellingly, for the past eight years, Cardinal players at the end of the season have voted for the best teammate. Eight players have won the honor. Pujols isn’t among them.