OPINION

By George Vecsey

updated 11:49 a.m. ET May 22, 2009

ST. LOUIS - If there is any consolation for the Mets — and, really, there may not be — at least that was Albert Pujols out there, breaking them down with his bat, softening them up with his feet and his glove.

“The perfect player, in my opinion,” said his manager, Tony La Russa.

Pujols insists he is not perfect, just a humble man living for his faith and his family, but at the moment he is probably the best player in baseball.

The staggering Mets, with little pitching or dash or instinct, can only give thanks they see Pujols six more times.

The road part of the season series is over, after the third straight loss to a recent series, a 12-8 mauling in which Pujols hit two homers for three runs, scored four times, stole a base and made a nifty stretch for an out at first base. He also made an error, as if to prove his imperfection.

Pujols is so vital to the Cardinals that the organization prevailed on him to show up in the early afternoon of a recent game to plug the All-Star Game here in July. The governor and the mayor also showed up, but they are probably not hitting .345. The ominous part about this civic treasure is that his seven-year, $100 million contract ends after 2011, and everybody knows he could opt for the bigger dollars that one of the richer clubs could offer.

Six games into this season, columnist Bernie Miklasz of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted the Cardinals’ own version of the Doomsday Clock — theoretically only 480 regular-season games for Pujols in St. Louis. All Cardinals fans are surely doing the gloomy math.

“I do know we have him guaranteed for three years,” William O. DeWitt Jr., the chairman and chief executive of the Cardinals, said Wednesday after the All-Star Game news conference. “I’m not thinking beyond that. Three years is three years.”

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Pujols has suggested he will be watching to see if the Cardinals spend money to bring in talent. He hinted in spring training that the Cardinals might think about spending to bring in Manny Ramirez, but Pujols quickly said he was only thinking out loud. Ramirez later signed with the Dodgers.

“It’s not about the money all the time,” Pujols said at the start of spring training about his own future. “It’s about being in a place to win and being in a position to win.” At the moment, the Cardinals are hustling and have a good record, in direct contrast to the Mets.

All the Mets’ money from cable television and bad-sightline seats and taxpayer-supported naming rights might not turn the club into a winner. Pujols is playing for a better team here in the heartland.

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