Sure, Chone Figgins was an awful free-agent signing, arguably the worst in Mariners history. But Mariner fans will only have to put up with Figgins and his $8.75 million yearly salary for another year-and-a-half (unless the club releases him sooner), whereas fans of the visiting California Angels are saddled with Albert Pujols for the next decade, at an average annual cost of $23.7 million. Figgins is hitting below .200 with two home runs, a start that has understandably led to his benching. Yet the Mariners’ chief rival for the AL West cellar keeps trotting out Pujols, who’s posted statistics nearly identical to Figgins (a former Angel), out to first base every day. Having shunned a similarly lucrative offer from his employer of the previous decade, the St. Louis Cardinals, Pujols has always gotten a pass from the media because he’s been a noble stepdad to a special-needs daughter and never lets an interview slip by without an overt Christian reference. But like many elite athletes, he’s a surly prick with a dozen cars he doesn’t need. Here’s hoping Cardinal Nation comes out in drunken force to remind Pujols what a traitor he is, and that St. Louis looks primed for another trip to the World Series without him. (Four-game series runs through Sun.) MIKE SEELY

Thu., May 24, 7:10 p.m.; May 25-27, 2012