Celebrity Autographs And Celebrity Addresses

Winter Warm-Up ends a success
Cardinals' annual event for charity comes to a close
By Matthew Leach / MLB.com


ST. LOUIS -- The ninth annual Cardinals Winter Warm-Up was such a success that even when it ended, it wasn't really over. As the scheduled event came to a close at 5 p.m. CT on Monday, St. Louis great Willie McGee still had a line of fans waiting for his autograph -- and of course the long-time Redbirds fan favorite obliged them.
Cardinals Care, the team's charitable arm benefiting children in the St. Louis area, enjoyed another rousing success with its main fundraiser. The Winter Warm-Up sold out on Saturday, its first day, with 12,000 passes issued for the weekend. Autograph tickets sold like mad, and the memorabilia auction brought in serious dollars as well.

The king of the event, unsurprisingly, was Albert Pujols. The Redbirds first baseman signed 400 autographs, of which more than 300 were sold at $95 a pop. Most of the remaining tickets for Pujols autographs were acquired by fans who bought $1 scratch-off tickets. Six chances were auctioned off. Pujols similarly dominated the auction -- a game-used Pujols road jersey from the 2004 season garnered $3,500.

"The kids of our community are the real winners of this Winter Warm-Up," said Tim Hanser, who heads up Cardinals Care. "We had a fantastic turnout of Cardinals fans who celebrated a great Cardinals year and a great Cardinals tradition -- and who are able to generously support an emerging great Cardinals tradition in the community."

Last year's event raised approximately $600,000, and Hanser believes that this year's will top it when the final receipts are tallied.

"Each year has steadily meant more fans and more dollars into the community," he said. "From our point of view, the whole focus is raising this money so we can build more ballfields, fund more children's agencies and support more youth baseball."

Not so fast: Right-hander Matt Morris didn't attend the Winter Warm-Up, remaining in Florida to continue his rehabilitation from offseason shoulder surgery. But head trainer Barry Weinberg said that Morris is progressing well, and is approximately one month behind schedule.

"He's not in his throwing program yet, he's just in the rehab process," Weinberg said. "He's really doing well. His strength is gaining. His range of motion is normal. His attitude and makeup are gonna help him -- and then prevent us from holding him back. The hardest part will be to try to hold him back."

It's unclear how much Morris will be able to do when the season starts. He is expected to be able to pitch, but on a limited pitch count.

Plate discipline: Pujols keeps two individual goals constant from year to year: increase his walk total and decrease his strikeouts. He's consistently done both, improving from 69 walks and 93 K's as a rookie to 84 and 52 in 2004. That's not Barry Bonds territory, but it wouldn't look too much out of place in the middle of Joe DiMaggio's career.

"Definitely, the strikeouts and the walks, those are things that I always want to make sure I do in my career," he said. "No matter if it's next year or 15 years from now, I always want to have that in my mind. I want to make sure that I put the ball in play and I want to make sure I get on base so I can score some runs for my guys.

"You don't have to hit home runs. You don't have to drive everybody in. If you can get on base and score, you're doing something to win the game. Those are things that I keep in my mind. I want to get on base. As long as my on-base percentage is over .400, I'm fine with it because I know I'm helping my team to win."

For the record, Pujols has been below .400 once in his career, a "paltry" .394 in 2002, and his career mark is .413.