米大リーグ：エンゼルスが野球界を衝撃。タイトルが凄い。
-アルバート・プーホーとＣ．Ｊ．ウィルソン獲得で
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Angels shock the baseball world
L.A. commits more than $325 million to land Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson
DALLAS -- It takes a lot to shock the citizens of Planet Baseball. A lot of dollars. A lot of years. A lot of courage.
But the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have pulled it off. On an unforgettable Thursday morning at baseball's 2011 winter meetings, they stunned their sport and changed their world, all in one dramatic swoop.
All it took was signing the great Albert Pujols, not to mention the $77.5 million and five years they gave to free-agent starter C.J. Wilson.
All it took was 10 years and more than $250 million, and Sir Albert was a Cardinals icon no more. He's an Angel now. Wait. Check that. He's THE Angel now.
He's the face of a franchise that hadn't even been connected with his name until 24 hours earlier. And that means he hasn't just transformed the Angels. He has left his indelible imprint on his entire sport -- on the team he is leaving behind, on the team he's joining, on the NL Central and the AL West, on landmark baseball contracts past and future.
It all came crashing down on one earth-rattling morning at the winter meetings, as news of Pujols' shocking decision rippled through the Hilton Anatole hotel and all the baseball movers and shakers who were still trying to fathom what just happened.
"If he's going to the American League, I'm a happy camper," said Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr.
"From my standpoint, it's great," said Mets GM Sandy Alderson. "We've got two wild cards and no Albert Pujols."
"I'll miss seeing him," said Reds GM Walt Jocketty, who once, in a previous life, was the general manager who had brought Pujols to the big leagues in St. Louis. "But I won't miss facing him."
Asked whether life in the American League West had just gotten a little more fun, Rangers assistant GM Thad Levine retorted: "How liberal is your definition of the word 'fun?'
"We just saw him for seven games [in the World Series]," Levine went on. "I think it's safe to say we haven't exactly figured him out yet."
Pujols' contract will go down in history as the biggest to a man who was not named Alex Rodriguez. Amazingly, his deal got done in the same hotel where the Texas Rangers once signed A-Rod for 10 years and 252 million of Tom Hicks' well-intentioned dollars.
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