Agree or Disagree, at Least Albert Pujols Stands for Something

Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals won't lose the National League Central to the Cincinnati Reds. They're going to lose it to Glenn Beck.

That's the joke going around this week. Since Pujols and Tony La Russa appeared at Beck's "Restore America" rally last Saturday, the Cards are winless and their All-Star first baseman is batting .118.

I don't think Pujols is cursed. He's just confused.

One day he's a hero for taking a stand. The next he's a skinhead.

So if you wonder why athletes aren't more outspoken on political and social issues, look no further than Pujols.

We tell them to take stands. We long for this generation of spoiled jocks to produce a Muhammad Ali. Somebody who will take a stand and speak truth to power.

Unless we don't like what they say, that is. Then we tell them to just shut up and play ball.

Pujols was entering Ali territory when he said this about Arizona's immigration law three months ago:

"I'm opposed to it. How are you going to tell me that, me being Hispanic, if you stop me and I don't have my ID, you're going to arrest me? That can't be."

Michael Jordan has always been dogged by his "Republicans buy sneakers, too," comment. Yet here corporate endorsers like Pujols were going against the will of 55 to 70 percent (depending on your poll) of the American public.

"There are rare historical moments when protest can shape athletes and athletes can in turn shape the confidence, size and scope of protest," the Huffington Post said. "This could very well be one of those moments."

It wasn't just what athletes said that so impressed the media and various opinion shapers. It was that they said anything at all.

Now it turns out taking a stand is not a principled position. It all depends on what you stand for. Or in this case, who you stand next to.

Pujols stood next to Beck at the National Mall. America's favorite boogeyman gave Pujols and his wife an award for their charity work. Most notably the Pujols Family Foundation, which helps people with Down Syndrome. One of Pujols daughters, Isabella, has the condition.

The Cardinals were in town to play the Nationals that night. La Russa introduced Pujols to the 500,000 or so in attendance.

"I want to thank God for giving me this platform as a baseball player," Pujols said. "My job as a believer is to share the Gospel of Christ."

It turns out taking a stand is not a principled position. It all depends on what you stand for. Or in this case, who you stand next to.
To critics, he was sharing the Gospel of Glenn. In case you haven't heard, the conservative talk show host has become something of a polarizing figure.

Beck billed his "Restore Honor" rally as apolitical, and by all reports there was hardly a mention of politics. No matter, Pujols has been painted as a useful idiot in Beck's drive to overthrow all things sacred and Obama. Protesters even gathered 900 miles away outside Busch Stadium.

"I'm fed up that politics has to invade every aspect of our lives," one man said.

My guess is he isn't fed up with protesters interrupting baseball games to show their opposition to Arizona's immigration law. The media intelligentsia has certainly eaten it up.

"Those who argue baseball has no place in politics are right," said SI.com. "It doesn't. But speaking out against Arizona's legislation isn't a political stance; it's a moral one."

Taking a stance against the immigration law was moral of Pujols. Taking a stance for morality was political. No wonder the guy is hasn't hit a home run since last Friday.

You'd be confused, too, if the world was telling you to stand up one moment then sit down the next. If a person is standing up for a cause they believe, isn't that what matters?

Not in America these days, where you have to believe what I believe.

"Pujols should publicly disavow Beck's paranoid, racialized view of America," according to "The Nation." And how about this from Bleacher Report:

"To allow oneself to become the victim of an egotistical blowhard who sows the seeds of division on national television every night simply for the purpose of making himself a millionaire, with absolutely no regard for the very people he pretends to represent, nor the very democracy for which he claims so much concern is unacceptable."

Whew, thank goodness Pujols didn't get up on stage and hug Sarah Palin. And in a real shock, 75 percent of respondents in a Daily Kos poll said Pujols and La Russa were disgracing the Cardinals by attending Beck's rally.

But let's be honest here. At least 75 percent of that crowd thought it disgraceful when Pujols came out against the Arizona law. Those people wanted him to shut up then as much as Keith Olbermann wants to poke holes in his Pujols rookie card now.

Neither side can take a stand on taking stands and stick to it. So what's an athlete like Pujols to do?

"As long as I'm alive, I'm going to do the best I can to represent Jesus Christ," he said at the rally. "Twelve years ago I made the best decision of my life, and that was following Jesus."

There you have the foundation of any legitimate stand. Believe in your position, whether it's on Mexican immigrants or America's culture war.

Albert Pujols is just listening to his heart. That makes a lot more sense than listening to anybody else.