Dear Mr. Pujols,
I have written you here before. Twice in fact. Both times I wrote you concerning your impending contract negotiations with my favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals. And as you probably guessed, I'm writing you now with the knowledge that you have taken a monster contract to play for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Many people are disappointed in your decision, and I count myself among them, but for different reasons than I've seen expressed. Many people consider this action an act of betrayal or other such notions. I do not consider this anything like that. I understand you are a businessman. I understand you have to do what is best for yourself and your family, and I do not hold that against you.
Instead, I think my disappointment comes from knowing you'll hit your 500th homerun and 3,000th hit with someone else. It's disappointing that I will no longer root for you in the same way. Don't get me wrong, I don't wish you ill (though if you had signed with the Cubs, this may not have been true). But, I don't expect I will feel as connected to your success as I did before. So many moments I lived vicariously through you. That night you destroyed Brad Ligde. That was one of the greatest playoff baseball moments of my life. I sat there angrily watching that game, cursing Roger Clemens and the Astros. I was so angry that they were going to advance to the World Series, mostly because I really dislike Roger Clemens. And just as I was about to accept defeat and start thinking about next year, with the quickest flick of the bat, you changed everything. We were alive again. We were alive and there would be another fight.
A fight, it turns out, we wouldn't win. But that was all right with me, because I had that moment.
And I have no doubt you will have great moments in the years to come for your new team. When you do, I will no doubt smile. But it won't be the same. You're the same person, no doubt, but you're not a Cardinal anymore. It's sort of an arbitrary distinction to root for someone based solely on what company they work for. In any other context I'm sure this would seem foolish. But this sort of thing is encouraged in Major League Baseball, so I guess that's reason enough for me to justify the difference.
Anyway, I've digressed. I was writing to wish you luck. You've always seemed like such a classy player and a good guy. I wish you nothing but the best.
Take care,
joe
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