Here's a perfect example of how powerful ESPN is. Last night, Albert Pujols, while chasing a foul ball down the first base line, was grasped by a drunken Philadelphia fan in the front row. Pujols kept his cool, glowering at and lecturing the man before giving the ball to a kid next to him, because Pujols is a great guy who, as ESPN always reminds us, loves the Down Syndrome kids. But where's the news reports about the incident? There aren't any. We've yet to find a mention of it in any newspaper or blog this morning. Either the whole press box missed it or it was a much smaller deal than this morning's SportsCenter thought.

Of course, now that SportsCenter has featured the "incident" and Peter Gammons has intoned weightily, expect second-day stories in every paper in the country. Sigh.

Cards Fail To Capitalize [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Contact information for this author is not available.