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Zero. I wasn't in a NL auction league while Albert was in St. Louis, and in my draft leagues, I only had two picks ever in the first round that were high enough to land him. I traded those picks both times to a Cardinals fanatic who would routinely overpay to get Albert in the draft.
While with the Angels, I've never been willing to pay the money in my auction league - or in recent years, consume the roster slot - to land Pujols.
Like KS, I've only seen one HR in person - Game 2 of the NLCS against the Brewers, a no-doubter off Shane Marcum.
I have never owned him, which upon reflection, amazes me, because I trade so much, I think I've had just about everyone on my team at one time or another. But he was given a max contract out to start, and once he hit the open market, he always went for more than I'd pay for a 1bman given the value at the position I could get cheaper.
he is one of our league's most famous/infamous stories.
it's 2000, and I'm in Los Angeles on business for the auction - so remote Commish it is.
auction is the morning of Opening Day, and the internet is only 4 or 5 years old.
so in the latter stage of the morning, one owner points to a potential nomination and asks if he made a 25-man roster (unusual in our league, especially before the last round or so, but not unprecedented).
the other owner honestly and quietly replies that he didn't think so - after all, the guy had been in A ball the year before.
so the first owner adjusts his approach.
half-hour later, a third owner nominates Pujols - and it's chaos.
from the phone, I reminded everyone of our rules from then - you can nominated anyone you want, and it's Buyer Beware. if we find out later that day that the player had been demoted, you lose all rights to the player AND you must immediately choose someone who wasn't even worthy of a DL replacement. and the contract is 10-S2, so plenty of disincentives there.
third owner wins Pujols for 7, and the first owner is absolutely having kittens because he was too short on units to counter.
I figured that for 7, this won't be that big of a deal, right? what could go wrong?
Owner 1 was known to be a dick, and his attack on Owner 2's integrity - rather than honest error - had us ready to kick him out of the league unless he backpedaled later (an in-the-moment blowup was understandable, given the circumstances).
he never did, and he quit at the end of the season. good riddance!
we haven't had a single "dick owner" since.
Pujols unit cost was 7, 7, 12, and 17 - and then a free agent.
I believe he has 2 rings for me - and I know he cost me another one as the key piece for a rival owner to ruin another pennant bid.
he left for some other league a decade ago - not sure whatever happened to him....
finished 10th in this 37th yr in 11-team-only NL 5x5
own picks 1, 2, 5, 6, 9 in April 2022 1st-rd farmhand draft
won in 2017 15 07 05 04 02 93 90 84
SP SGray 16, TWalker 10, AWood 10, Price 3, KH Kim 2, Corbin 10
RP Bednar 10, Bender 10, Graterol 2
C Stallings 2, Casali 1
1B Votto 10, 3B ERios 2, 1B Zimmerman 2, 2S Chisholm 5, 2B Hoerner 5, 2B Solano 2, 2B LGarcia 10, SS Gregorius 17
OF Cain 14, Bader 1, Daza 1
Pujols both won and lost a league for me, at the same time.
This goes back to 2007 or 2008, the year Pujols was having foot problems. Byron was starting up a new NL ultra league and I joined it. Inaugural draft, I end up with a cheap Pujols due to the injury concerns, and end up winning 2 years in a row convincingly with no close competition, and the league folds.
I saw Alberto Pujols play in the Arizona Fall League in November of 2000. He went 2 for 4 with a double and HR. Complete stud.
In my 12-team mixed keeper, we had 40-man rosters. You paid (auction) for 23 and then draft the other 17. You could keep players on your bench as long as you wanted, however, once you brought them up to active, the clock starts. Their salary is $5 with a 15% increase ($1 min increase) each year. After the third active year, you had to throw them back, so a reserve player would be $5 the year you brought them, $6 the following year and $7 the final year.
I drafted Pujols in March of 2001 and spent the entire season refusing to bring him up to the active roster because I didn't want his clock to start. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I finally brought him up in 2002 and kept him for 3 years. So I got 123 of his 662. I never had him again. I only won that league once - in 2012. The league shuttered after that season.
"Igor, would you give me a hand with the bags?"
"Certainly. You take the blonde and I'll take the one in the turban!"
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