Los Angeles Angels first baseman Albert Pujols is relishing his final chance to face his good friend David Ortiz on the baseball field. Pujols, 36, grew up near the Seattle Mariners’ baseball academy in the Dominican Republic, and used to go watch the players there practice as a kid. Among those players was Ortiz (then known as David Arias), a teenager signed as an amateur free agent by the M’s. “I used to leave school early to watch them practice,” Pujols told the Orange County Register in a recent story. “He gave me a lot of advice, especially the times that I struggled in my career when I went to the American League.
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Marlins, Cardinals vying for Pujols (AP)
DALLAS (AP)—Jeffrey Loria quickly marched down the hallway with his team president, trailed by their top aides, and hustled into a meeting room with a labor lawyer from Major League Baseball. Having already made the biggest splash at the winter meetings, the Miami Marlins owner was trying to reel in Albert Pujols(notes) and perhaps other big-name free agents with the newfound riches from their new ballpark. “He’s not the only guy,” Loria said about 20 minutes later before heading back upstairs on an elevator with his delegation. Baseball’s new Big Fish were the talk of the winter meetings Tuesday, with teams wondering how close the Marlins were to an agreement with Pujols on a deal that could be worth $ 200 million
Report: Marlins, Other Major League Teams Believe Albert Pujols Is Actually Older Than He Claims
While money is generally the biggest issue in contract talks, the Miami Marlins are concerned with another number when it comes to prized free agent Albert Pujols. Dan Le Batard of the Miami Herald wrote on Sunday that the Marlins are set on offering a nine-year deal to Pujols, although they, and other teams, are skeptical of the longtime Cardinals slugger's real age. "The total dollars are in dispute, depending on whom you believe, but the number of years offered is not," Le Batard reports. "Nine years. That's insanity, especially since, like a lot of teams, the Marlins believe Pujols to be older than the 31 he claims to be." Pujols, who has spent 11 years in the majors, entered the league in 2001, at