Although I have been somewhat less zealous in my appreciation of Major League Baseball since the player's last strike, I remain a St. Louis Cardinal fan.

I do not follow the Cardinals as I once did. Still, when I heard a silly statement made by ESPN's Joe Morgan during the telecast of the Home Run Derby, I became quite irritated.

To say the least, Morgan slighted the Cardinals' Albert Pujols. I'll refrain from thinking, "To say the most."

ESPN producers decided to have their crew interview Alex Rodriguez as Pujols was batting in the first round of the derby. Afterwards, one of the crew apologized to watchers for not evaluating Pujols' performance.

That's when Morgan said something really dumb. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, that it would have been difficult to evaluate anything while interviewing Alex Rodriguez, one of baseball's all-time greats.

Excuse me! What is Albert Pujols?

Pujols is the only player in Major League history to hit 30-plus home runs in each of his first six seasons. Also, he reached 250 home runs faster than any other player in history. He is still young, and his record so far speaks for itself.

If anything, Morgan and the crew of ESPN should have had difficulty doing anything other than evaluating Pujols' performance.

The Rodriguez interview could have been taped and played later. Or, it could have been skipped altogether.

Jack Rollins is the managing editor of the Daily Dunklin Democrat.