The American League is the place to be if you’re a big name first baseman looking for a long-term contract. Over the past 14 months, three of Major League Baseball’s best players at the position have taken big money to switch from the National League.

Adrian Gonzalez’s trade from the San Diego Padres to the Boston Red Sox in December 2010 was contingent on the Sox signing him to a seven-year, $154 million extension that ends when Gonzalez is 36. In December 2011, Albert Pujols rejected the St. Louis Cardinals in order to sign a 10-year, $254 million deal with the Rosemead Angels of Tustin that locks him up through the age of 41. This past week Prince Fielder left the Brewers in favor of a nine-year, $214 million deal with the Detroit Tigers. He will turn 36 one month into the final season of the deal.

These three join Mark Teixeira (eight-year, $180 million deal through age 36), as marquee players who have signed contracts in the American League that, in the final years of the deals, will likely earn the player more than he’s worth. The most extreme case is the $30 million Pujols will receive in 2021. The leagues’ differing designated hitter rules may have the biggest impact on American League teams’ ability to land big first basemen.

Having a DH slot allows AL teams to keep their main first baseman in the lineup as a way of giving them some rest, helping them ease back from injury, or allowing them to stay offensively productive late in their career when their defense becomes a liability. It also allows them to avoid a predicament similar to the Philadelphia Philies’ when Jim Thome and Ryan Howard were vying for the Major League 1B role.

Howard was tearing up the minor leagues in 2004 and appeared ready for the Majors, but Thome had a lock on first base in Philadelphia. They split time in 2005, with Thome declining due to injury and Howard showing his potential. Thome was traded in the off-season, and Howard became the full-time starter in 2006. The Phillies were fortunate to have two probable Hall of Famers competing for the same spot, but having a DH would have allowed Howard to become their starting first baseman a full year earlier, while Thome may have avoided some of the wear and tear he suffered as a two-way player by playing DH.

On the other hand, while the beginning of Howard’s career was delayed by the lack of an NL DH slot, he’s set up well to benefit from the system going forward. His deal with the Phillies runs until he’s 36 with an option for the following season, so his main competition’s migration to the American League nearly ensures him multiple All-Star appearances and Silver Slugger awards.

Until the National League makes the switch to allow a designated hitter, its teams will be at a disadvantage when it comes to signing established power hitters. NL teams’ reluctance to overpay sluggers who are liable to break down saves them the aggravation of paying a player $1 million per home run in his late 30’s, but most Cardinals fans would gladly suffer through that to see Pujols finish his career in St. Louis.

Roberto Heredia has had some extreme highs and lows as a Major League pitcher. He finished his rookie season of 2006 with a 1-10 record and 5.42 ERA while starting in just seven of his 38 appearances. The next season, as a full time starter, he was a brilliant 19-8 with a 3.06 ERA while helping his team reach the American League Championship Series. He’s since struggled with a 33-48 record, though he made the AL All-Star team in 2010 while regaining some positive form. You might be surprised that you’ve never heard of a pitcher who nearly won 20 games in a season and was an All-Star selection, but it’s only because you know him as Fausto Carmona.

Carmona was arrested in the Dominican Republic on Jan. 19 for falsifying identification. His I.D. under the name Carmona lists his birthdate as Dec. 7, 1983, though he was really born in 1980. This might seem like a minor difference until considering two contracts he signed. At the beginning of the 2008 season, the Cleveland Indians signed Carmona to a four-year, $15 million extension that includes three options that could increase the value to $43 million. The Indians made this deal believing he was 24 years old while he was really 27. Both the length and annual salary of the deal would likely have been smaller had the team known his real age.

The other important contract is the one that prompted him to adopt a new identity. He originally signed with the Indians less than a month after what they believed to be his 17^th birthday. This is significant because teams generally offer no more than $5,000 to players who are 18, and they are given little chance to prove their abilities beyond that age. So, at 20 years old, Heredia likely would have been left with no option other than to work as a farmer in his hometown of Naranjo Atta Viejo Yamasa.

Heredia is by no means the only Dominican-born player to use a false identity to play Major League Baseball. In September of 2011, Florida Marlins closer Leo Nuñez, born in 1983, was found to really be Juan Carlos Oviedo, born in 1982. He signed his first deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates at 17 years old. The fact that the Pirates believed he was 16 was a big factor on the size of his signing bonus because, according to Nuñez’s teammate Edward Mujica, 16-year-olds are generally offered $100,000-$150,000 more than 17-year-olds with comparable abilities.

The most prominent case of a player using a false identity came to light during the first month of the 2008 season. Miguel Tejada was found to have changed the spelling of his last name from Tejeda, and he was born two years before his stated birth year of 1976. That two-year difference could have greatly altered his status when signing with the Oakland Athletics in 1993.

As estimated in the documentary “Road to the Big Leagues,” slightly more than one-third of all documents presented during the signing process in the Dominican Republic have some type of irregularity. If these issues are caught early enough, a contract can be voided and the offending player can be banned. This punishment acts as only a minor deterrent since most players who decide to use a false identity would likely have no chance of getting signed if they told the truth about their age.

It might seem devious that some players have made millions of dollars as a result of using a false identity, but the circumstances a player faces from missing out on a contract would lead most people to lie. The signing bonus a highly prized 16-year-old can receive is often life changing, given the widespread poverty in the Dominican Republic. Also, even if a player never reaches the Major Leagues, the salary he would receive as a minor league player must seem like a fortune, in comparison to the financial prospects in his home country. Cases like Heredia’s, Oviedo’s, and Tejada’s show the potentially extreme upside that can come from the opportunities gained by using a false I.D. The practice certainly is illegal and should be discouraged, but when you consider the activities for which American teenagers use false identities, it’s hard to get too upset at the practice.

As the sun rises in the baseball world of St. Louis this 8^th day of December, 2011, Albert the Great has flown the coup. Yes. Pujols is to become an Angel, and once again sports fans everywhere must realize that today, in professional sports, no matter what the name, no matter how it is spelled, there is no way to derive the word “TEAM.”

St Louis social media fans are lamenting, gnashing their collective teeth and texting, “How could you do this to us after 10 years?” C’mon St. Louis, it’s all about the “M”s—Money, Me and Mine. For a guy who just attended the unveiling of a statue of himself outside a St. Louis restaurant that (for the moment) bears his name, would you expect anything else?

St. Louis fans who have been voted by the Sporting News in years past as the “best fans in baseball” are observing that Pujols who has been injured a few times over the last years, whose aggressiveness has been questioned when he hits a ground ball into an apparent out and jogs to first base and who refuses to sign anything without a donation to his charity, may not be the Great that he has been crowned.

He’s coming up on 32 years of age according to Albert. The last 10 years have been phenomenal, but does he have the desire to stand next to the likes of Ozzie Smith, Lou Brock and Bob Gibson of the current era and Slaughter, Schoendist and Dean of the past era, and all time—The Man, Stan Musial.

Albert feels dissed by the Cardinals because they didn’t sign him before the 2011 season started—so he declared free agency. Then he declared that he would not talk about, discuss or even think about a contract with the Cardinals until the season was over. Reminds me of a friend of mine whose girlfriend said, “I don’t’ want to talk to you,” then dumped him because he never called her.

Fans love heroes, and they should because heroes give all of us something to believe in, something to lift our spirits. When the times are such, as they are in these days, that our spirits need lifting, heroes in sports, in movies and in real life are few and far between. When the true ones come along, life is bearable, if not better.

Albert the Great believes he has been the best in baseball over the last 10 years, he believes he should be the highest paid in baseball and to achieve those personal goals, he believes that the TEAM should sacrifice so the individual can rise. Ten years, no cut, $200 plus million makes no sense for the TEAM. Albert you may be GREAT, but your statue will never stand next to the MAN’S.