Albert: Why Didn’t I Play?

Albert Pujols: “It's the All-Star Game. He can do what he wants. He does whatever he wants. If I wasn't expecting to play, I wouldn't have come up here. I was ready to go since the game started.”

Tony La Russa: “If he wants to get upset, he can get upset. Whatever he wants to do, he can do. It's America. That wasn't the most important thing tonight. Once we lost [Miguel] Cabrera and [Freddy] Sanchez, he was the guy we were going to use to protect ourselves in case we kept playing because of Albert's versatility. I think we had the right guy at bat. Albert was the guy who was going to do whatever we needed. If Albert doesn't understand that, I'm surprised and disappointed. It isn't that tough a thing. I explained his role to him before the game. Let me ask you this. If we go to extra innings, who's going to be our player to move around and play? Can Dmitri [Young] move around and play? Or is Albert going to do that? Who's the most versatile guy not playing? It's Albert. It isn't even that tough. He'll figure it out sooner or later.”