So Feb. 16 is not quite D-Day for Pujols-Cards

Yesterday, USA Today reported St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols reportedly rejected the latest team offer for a new contract AND reiterated that talks will end Tuesday.

Today? The deadline has been mutually extended.

I'm not quite yet to the point of making politics-type "winners" and "losers" calls, especially since this is just a 24-hour extension, special-reason extension. For that, thank your lucky stars, or rather your former Cardinal superstar, Stan Musial:

The Cardinals Hall of Famer will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in Washington on Tuesday and general manager John Mozeliak said Monday the club did not want to distract from Musial’s special day. Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. and Mozeliak will accompany the 90-year-old Musial to Washington.

But, if we have another extension after that, I will start making such judgment calls, namely as to who wins, who loses, and who will blink first.

I mean, look at this extension. It's not like both sides didn't know what was happening Tuesday. The Redbird spring training circus predicted by Yahoo just got started a bit early, that's all.

And, while I'm not yet m aking judgment calls, other bloggers are. Redbird Rants wonders if Albert isn't a religious phony and worse. (My take: He's less a religious phony than many athletes; he may be more a religious phony than some.)

Anyway, for both laughs and seriousness, visit the Albert Pujols Countdown.