It appears Albert Pujols is okay with the “El Hombre” nickname now.
2012
Last week, the latest cover of ESPN The Magazine surfaced, featuring Albert Pujols in an Angels hat. A few days later, ESPN released behind-the-scenes video of the magazine photo shoot. As we get closer and closer to the 2012 MLB season, these marketing and publication assets will quickly make the non-Cardinals Albert Pujols a harsher reality.
Thursday was one of those days, when photos of Albert Pujols-themed billboards in Los Angeles began to circulate via Twitter.
Cute.
You see, “El Hombre” means “The Man” in Spanish and Los Angeles has an extremely high quotient of people that speak it. In fact, “Los Angeles” itself is Spanish for “The Angels”. Whoa, wait a minute. Yep, we’re totally mind blown.
Anyway, this is highly ironic considering a notable interaction with Mr. Pujols that transpired two years ago this month.
Pujols politely asked that the media and fans refrain from calling him “El Hombre,” because he believes it’s disrespectful to Cardinals. “I don’t want to be called that,” Pujols said. “There is one man that gets that respect, and that’s Stan Musial. He’s the Man. You can call me whatever else you want, but just don’t call me El Hombre.”
Fine. At the time, it was tough to argue with the reasoning because Pujols was the figurehead of the organization and his word was Gospel. Throw in a token appreciation for Stan Musial and you have a full-fledged, sheepish approval from the Cardinals media and supporting fan base.
Apparently, this appreciation is only relevant in St. Louis. Why? Stan Musial is pervasively known as “The Man” throughout baseball. It’s not like Jim Hayes’ nickname of “The Piece” – which is limited to local knowledge circles. Pujols only has respect for Musial within the confines of the Cardinals organization? That’s borderline fraudulent.
Unless, of course, something changed between 2010 and 2012. Pujols says that money hasn’t changed him, so there’s only one major thing we can think of: Pujols wasn’t happy with the goodbye messages created by Musial himself.
Yep, that has to be it.
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[...] My guess is that Pujols wasn’t consulted about it; in LA, after all, you might use Spanish on a billboard for more pragmatic reasons than you would in St. Louis, Missouri. But even if he was, I’m tired of trying to divine whether he feels some kind of resentment toward his only baseball home or not; he took one deal, he didn’t take another, and the Cardinals have managed to field a very competitive team in 2012 in spite of it. (Of course, if you’re looking to divine etc. etc., JoeSportsFan has given it a shot.) [...]
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The Piece? I thought that was DGB.
http://www.joesportsfan.com/mizzou-slu/dorial-green-beckham-mizzou-massive/
Remember that time Anaheim took the Rams away from St. Louis? Oh, wait. That never happened. However, it did happen to the city of Anaheim when the Rams left for St. Louis.
This is a non story.
It was obviously with a lot of respect that Albert declined being caalled The Man (In St. Louis.).
In Anaheim, and to most of their fans, Stan Musial’s name conjures up … nothing, a blank. There he is not a legend, unless you are an fan.
Therefore, there is no disrespect. And older fans for whom Stan is a living legend and for whom “the Man” is special; well the name El Hombre will not create that much of an association.
Besides, the initial rejection of the name was a show of respect for Stan and the organization, which used and dropped Pujo;s in a very business like manner of Mitt Romney would approve.
When the history is written, Cardinal fans will understand that Pujols wanted the Cardinals, and Cardinal management didn’t want Pujols.
As a passionate Cardinal fan living in Orange County (PITY ME), I nearly drove into a telephone pole when I saw the one that just went up a mile from my house—an abomination on so, so many levels.
And, as a local friend pointed out: “Obviously they don’t know how sacrilegious this is, too. Growing up in downtown LA, I can tell you that in the Spanish speaking Catholic churches, you only refer to Jesus as ‘El Hombre.’ I expect there to be some backlash.”
Unless, you know, Jesus told Deidre it was okay.
I highly doubt in Pujols had any control over this.
And, of course, you do realize that if they had had free agency in the 1940s Musial probably would have finished his career in New York.
Big deal! He is in a new city, and if he is okay with El Hombre, I don’t see what the big deal is. If anyone is truly offended by this, he or she needs to get a life.
MOVE ON.
From the St. Louis Post Dispatch:
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/birdland/report-pujols-objects-to-el-hombre-billboards/article_c0edcfd4-5d85-11e1-8de0-0019bb30f31a.html
Obviously this was not approved by Pujol’s nor was he even consulted. Get over it folks.
It is ok that Albert is el hombre now since he is in another league.
http://www.2city.org/sports/Albert-Pujols-el-hombre-Angels.html