Who started the fire?

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Chris Weise.

No, this story is not about the Crab Rangoon incident, so if anybody posts a comment about that matter it will be deleted. This post concerns many of the ongoing stories in sports and certain stories in the past that most likely have led to what is going on today.

Fire: The Albert Pujols/St.Louis Cardinals Negotiations

There are many different starts to this fire but I'm going to point to two.

The first being Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod gets blamed for a lot of things but one thing in particular is the outrageous contract given to "franchise players" in baseball.  After becoming a free agent in 2000 , A-Rod left the Seattle Mariners for the Texas Rangers after being offered a then record 10 year $252 million contract. Then in 2007, Rodriguez opted out of that same contract now with the New York Yankees. The Yankees caved after initially ending negotiations with him and signed A-Rod to an again record 10 year $275 million deal, plus incentives that can bring that number to $300 million . A-Rod's going to be 42 and the end of that contract.

Now on to Pujols. Albert Pujols is currently negotiating with the St.Louis Cardinals on a new contract because he is set to be a free agent this coming offseason. The hold up now is that he wants the same deal as A-Rod got in 2007. Like Rodriguez, Albert is going to be 41 at the end of his proposed deal and feels that he should be accommodated as A-Rod was. Pujols presents the same resume as A-Rod if not better; Both own 3 MVP awards and consistently produce 30-40 even 50 homerun and 100 RBI seasons. But unlike A-Rod, during his present negotiations he has already been to two World Series and won one with the Cards and is a consistent triple crown threat.

Pujols has set a deadline for negotiating an extension which will be the start of spring training. He will not accept any trades because he has played ten years and at least five with the same team. If a deal is not reached before the deadline he will test the free agent market. What may be the reason for this deadline is perhaps Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer's negotiations last year where he signed a 10 year extension just before the start of spring training. Pujols might be feeling that he should be dealt with in the same way.

Fire: Frequent questions of players statuses with their NBA teams

This not only concerns the Carmelo Anthony situation but also Deron Williams, Chris Paul, and Dwight Howard. Those players cannot become free agents until 2012, but their futures in their respective small market cities are now being questions. The fire was started by Chris Bosh and LeBron James. LeBron left the Cleveland Cavaliers high and dry without leaving them a building block for the future(unless you consider the atrocity that the Cavs put on night to night this year that will likely become a top 3 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft a building block). The Toronto Raptors went through the same thing with Bosh. They did not think Bosh was much to build a team around and thought to trade him before the 2010 trade deadline. They even thought to trade him to the Cavs, which might have led to James staying in Cleveland.

Many people believe that due to Deron Williams rift with Jerry Sloan, the legendary coach resigned for the betterment of the franchise. Some feel that Jerry Sloan "old-school" style of coaching would keep Williams from re-signing with the Jazz. Chris Paul made a well publicized toast at Carmelo's wedding saying that he and Melo would join Amare Stoudemire in New York and form their own "Big Three" (in reference to Miami and Boston). Mix that with rampant talks about the Hornets perhaps not staying in New Orleans as well as the NBA operating the franchise (and if you would like to know the outcome of what happens when a league operates a franchise, look up the Montreal Expos), the chances of CP3 staying in the Crescent City are bleak at best. Finally, there is Dwight Howard. Dwight over the last few years has become famous outside of the basketball world and some cast comparisons to another center whom the Orlando Magic picked with the first pick in the draft, Shaquille O'Neal. Shaq left the Magic Kingdom for Hollywood and hasn't looked back since. The idea now is that Howard will do the same thing. All of these players will certainly be on the trade block this time next year because their respective teams will hear rumors and fear becoming the Raptors or even worse, the Cavs.

Many sports stories today are fueled by sports stories of the past. The outcome of these situations can reveal who started the fire.