I wonder what’s going on right now. 
To their credit, the Cardinals and the Pujols camp haven’t had any leaks. No rumors, no innuendo. Your guess is as good as my guess at this point… because no one can even feign knowledge of how the negotiations between Pujols and the team are proceeding.
Not surprising, actually.
St. Louis’ media coverage of the Cardinals has been spectacularly fawning. The appetite for information is enormous and the team is the bread and butter in the TV, Paper and Internet market here in town. Those with access don’t want to piss off daddy- so they’re going to temper any remarks and not rough up sources to give up what little information they may or may not have.
In a way, it’s quaint. Kind of a throwback to the days when journalists and athletes had an unspoken bond- you take care of me, I’ll frame this is a way that makes whatever you did seem reasonable. And not to say this is terrible. If every market was like NY or Boston where any rumor was cause for tabloid headlines and reputations ruined- then we’d all be a bit edgy.
Here in STL, we’re more romantic than that. We love our stars scrappy, hard-working and above all- worshiping us back to the media that covers them.
It’s cyclical.
We love Pujols, Pujols tells reporter he loves St. Louis, reporter tells us how Pujols said he loves St. Louis, St. Louis loves Pujols even more.
I get it. It works. It’s fine.
But as we mentioned earlier in the week, this could well be the most important two weeks in the history of the St. Louis Cardinals. The decision they make with Pujols will have a far reaching impact on everything from the face they put on the tickets to the vitality of the local economy.
A million ways to cover the story, a million different incentives to get the scoop… and yet here we are, mere days from spring training and the local press is content to sit back and wonder with the rest of us just what’s going to happen.
And when I say local press, I mean anyone that draws a paycheck to write, talk or produce anything that’s sports related as their main salary. I love this site and I try to get content on it every weekday… but it doesn’t make much money. I have a real job and can’t break a story unless it falls into my lap.
The other guys? They should be working harder. Because regardless of the cold shoulder and limited access they’ll receive all season from the Cardinals for exposing a leak in Fort Pujols Negotiations, they’ll have a resume header that said they were the ones that broke the biggest story in 2011 for St. Louis.
Will anyone actually step up, though?
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