This week, Albert Pujols and Jose Reyes, two free-agent players that formed the backbone of their franchises, picked up and left their clubs for much, much greener (read: richer) pastures. Pujols left the St. Louis Cardinals, signing with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, while Reyes will head south from New York to Miami to suit up for the Marlins. There will be plenty of time in the spring to hear about how happy those clubs are to have risked enormous wads of cash on players that carry long-term health risks, but now, it's all about the misery and wounds left by their departures.

The news came to me via text message. It read "So Nate was right about Reyes." Nate is the three year-old son of my friend Dan, who three weeks ago proclaimed that Jose Reyes, the Mets free agent all-star shortstop, was a goner. At the time I thought, this kid is barely potty trained and probably can't even pee straight—what does he know about baseball? As it turns out, he knew plenty. I was already sulking about football, after the New York Giants crushing loss to the Green Bay Packers when the phone lit up, informing me that the most electrifying offensive player in the 50-year history of the franchise was heading to Miami, a team that Mets fans don't like at all, a division rival. His signing of a six-year $106m deal means the Mets will be seeing way too much of Reyes wearing the Miami Marlins re-designed uniforms, in their new stadium, with their new name, and their nouveau riche payroll thanks to their newly-found revenue. He'll be smiling, stealing, swinging, ranging and romping around the diamond as he often did for New York since signing with the team in 1999 as a scrawny kid from the Dominican Republic. I felt sick, and I was mean to my wife for no reason other than Jose Reyes was not a Met—I admit it, guilty.

When a team loses a special player like Reyes, one that has grown up in their farm system, it's emotional for fans. It's also something that Mets followers aren't really used to because in their modest history, the ballclub haven't developed many players that can sell seats. Reyes and David Wright, the Mets struggling third baseman, were the two home-grown kids who were supposed to make up the core of a team that won things for a long time. Instead, the Mets are going through the darkest period in team history, leaking tens of millions of dollars, navigating through Bernie Madoff related litigation, short of the cash needed to re-sign their own star player.

The Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson said he wanted Reyes back at the right price, but not for an overinflated $106m, not with the health issues that have dogged him for several seasons. That's probably the reason Alderson did nothing to show Reyes he was interested in bringing him back, while the rags-to-riches Marlins full-court press began the second they could legally contact Reyes, who was shocked that there was no orange and blue welcome (back) wagon in waiting to try and drive him back to Queens.

The bottom line is that the Mets have become a small market team playing in the big smoke, a reality their fan base is struggling to come to terms with. Player agent Scott Boras summed it up when he remarked "Normally, they're in the steaks sections, and I found them in the fruits and nuts category a lot." Watching Reyes and his play for a rival year-in, year-out is going to be awful, the icing on a shitty cake that's been crumbing since they lost Game Seven of the National League Championship Series to the St. Louis Cardinals back in 2006. Speaking of the Cardinals, their fan base are dealing with some rather large heartaches themselves, now that their once-in-a-generation, franchise player, Albert Pujols, has picked up and headed west to play for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for a ten-year deal worth a measly $250m. At least Cards fans won't have to see Pujols as much as the Mets will see Reyes—the Angels reside in the American League. Then again, there's Sportscenter, and that Internet thing. The Cardinals are the current World Series Champions, and the general rule is you really can't be complaining about your team after winning a title. However, since Pujols is arguably the best Cards hitter of all-time, there has to be some relaxing of that rule here. We aren't talking about a player, we are talking about the player, and now he's going to be in Anaheim, playing for a team that came out of absolutely nowhere to bag the slugger, not to mention former Texas Rangers ace pitcher C.J. Wilson, sending shock-waves throughout baseball's annual Winter Meetings.

As bad as losing Reyes is to Mets fans, losing Pujols just weeks after the retirement of manager Tony La Russa must be on another level. Albert is a prodigious power hitter whose hitting three home runs in a single World Series game is a speck on a resume that includes a .328 lifetime batting average, 445 career round-trippers, and a slugging percentage that trails only Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Lou Gehrig through his first 11 seasons. Yes, insane statistics, but even those gaudy numbers can't come close to illustrating what the player means to the people. I headed straight for William Leitch, the Contributing Editor for New York Magazine and Deadspin founder who grew up in Illinois, a few hours away from Busch Stadium. Those who follow Leitch on Twitter know he is a die-hard Cardinals fan. In shock, Leitch offered a numbered list of thoughts, here are two entries:



"16. But Albert Pujols doesn't play for the St. Louis Cardinals anymore. That central organizing principle, not just in the lives of Cardinals fans, but in baseball itself, is over. It's surreal to even think about it. I haven't come to terms with it yet, and I'm not sure I will. It's fine. Albert will be fine, and the Cardinals will be fine, and the Angels will be fine, and everyone will move on with their lives. But Albert Pujols and the Cardinals were linked in the way that Derek Jeter and the Yankees are linked, the way that Cal Ripken and the Orioles were linked, the way that Tony Gwynn and the Padres were linked. That is one of baseball's unique pleasures: The way one man can become an institution in a place, someone who 5-year-olds can talk about with 85-year-olds. Albert Pujols is not a bad person for leaving the Cardinals, and the Cardinals are not less of a franchise for losing him."



and:

"18. It still feels like we all lost something. It still feels like something everyone's gonna end up regretting. It still feels wrong. I suspect it always will."



Leitch was also critical of the deal the Angels gave Pujols, and he's right—that is silly money, the most any player has been awarded in a single contract, with the lone exception of Alex Rodriguez. You can easily imagine a situation where Pujols breaks down a few seasons from now, and the Angels are left holding a very expensive sheet of paper. You can also say the same of Miami and Reyes, who is a player whose game is as healthy as his hamstrings.

In the end baseball is a game of emotional fans and practical players. To be angry at a person for taking 100 or 250 million dollars to leave town is absurd and deep down we all know it. That won't change the fact that to the fan these people represent us, and we know that Albert Pujols can't represent the people of St. Louis from California. I am sure opening day in St. Louis a five-year-old kid will say "this sucks without Albert!" and an old man will nod his head in agreement. People will keep talking, and baseball will move on.

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