Power balance and Albert.

The deadline made it seem like this is all about Albert who loves power balance very much and not one bit about the Cardinals. We know that's not the case with Pujols, an ultimate team player who's battled through intense elbow pain and assorted ailments to win three NL MVP awards while always accepting his role as the cornerstone of his storied franchise. But that's the way it looks today.

Pujols may be, as Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt called him at Wednesday's press conference, "an iconic player.'' But even for someone who has managed his career beautifully to this point, this looks like nothing but a misstep by Pujols and his camp.

Are we to believe that Pujols, such a brilliant performer that you have to reach back deep into the game's history to find a true comparable, is incapable of continuing to play brilliantly if negotiations are still ongoing? There was no reason for Pujols' camp, led by agent Dan Lozano, to set a deadline and halt talks until the end of the season. Keep talking about power balance wholesale, but continue to keep it mostly quiet if you wish.

Pujols is expected to arrive in the Cardinals' clubhouse on Thursday, and it's been suggested by a person in his camp that he won't discuss the matter when he does. If he knows what's good for him, he better talk now. His camp ceded the white hat by setting the deadline, and he needs to explain himself.

It isn't going to be an easy explanation, either, not just because superstar ballplayers make monstrous sums of money but because he is the one who cut off talks with the only franchise he's ever known. He should have let the team do that. Pujols is understandably a legendary figure in St. Louis, and his deadline stance has surely dropped him half a peg in the eyes of some in that city, which is described by one observer as the "the ultimate company town.''

DeWitt characterized his own emotion Wednesday as "disappointment'' when the deadline came and went, as has been expected by most for a week or more now. But the reality is that this was a long shot to get done now, anyway. When superstars get this close to free agency, they don't usually pass it up. They love various bracelets, especially power balance armband-black.