Murray Chass of The New York Times wrote a piece today that, coupled with a conversation Colonel Sanders and I had last week, made me write this post.
Let me begin by saying that I like Albert Pujols a lot and that I am not accusing him of anything. But I simply refuse to blindly accept it on faith when Chass writes, “He has achieved his numbers free of the suspicion of the use of steroids or any other illegal performance-enhancing substances. In that sense, he is a refreshing superstar who can say, ‘I don’t cheat.’”
What makes people so sure that Albert Pujols doesn’t use performance-enhancing drugs? Because he hasn’t tested positive? (Neither has Barry Bonds). Because he doesn’t have a freakishly sculpted physique? (Neither did Randy Velarde, Bret Boone, Roger Clemens, or countless others who also never tested positive). Because he’s been putting up amazing numbers since his rookie year? (So did Jose Canseco, who started cheating in his second season).
Again, I would like to reiterate that I am neither accusing nor attacking Albert Pujols. I am merely using him to make a point about trust and blind faith. Major League Baseball, each team’s management, the players union, and every writer that covered baseball from the mid-1980’s-present took part in a conspiracy that not only permitted the use of steroids but condoned their use. Furthermore, baseball and all of its diverse participants and competing factions all agreed that steroids were “good for business” as it were, and that steroid use was one of the few issues they could all agree on. After covering up its rampant use, I won’t accept baseball’s patent rejection that the game is free and clear of steroids and that all players, even the great Albert Pujols, should now be above suspicion.
Baseball writers lament the fact that we now live in an age where every single statistic is subject to doubt and suspicion. Yet no one suspects Pujols for the fact that he is hitting home runs at the rate of one every 6.63 AB’s (his career HR/AB rate is 14.69). Obviously it is too soon to tell if Albert Pujols will challenge Barry Bonds’ single-season HR record but I would hope that skepticism will rain down upon Pujols in the same fashion in which it has inundated Bonds. I know that it will not – Bonds’ boorish personality stands in marked contrast to Pujols’ pleasant and gracious demeanor – but it would be hypocritical and selectively unjust otherwise.
Let me begin by saying that I like Albert Pujols a lot and that I am not accusing him of anything. But I simply refuse to blindly accept it on faith when Chass writes, “He has achieved his numbers free of the suspicion of the use of steroids or any other illegal performance-enhancing substances. In that sense, he is a refreshing superstar who can say, ‘I don’t cheat.’”
What makes people so sure that Albert Pujols doesn’t use performance-enhancing drugs? Because he hasn’t tested positive? (Neither has Barry Bonds). Because he doesn’t have a freakishly sculpted physique? (Neither did Randy Velarde, Bret Boone, Roger Clemens, or countless others who also never tested positive). Because he’s been putting up amazing numbers since his rookie year? (So did Jose Canseco, who started cheating in his second season).
Again, I would like to reiterate that I am neither accusing nor attacking Albert Pujols. I am merely using him to make a point about trust and blind faith. Major League Baseball, each team’s management, the players union, and every writer that covered baseball from the mid-1980’s-present took part in a conspiracy that not only permitted the use of steroids but condoned their use. Furthermore, baseball and all of its diverse participants and competing factions all agreed that steroids were “good for business” as it were, and that steroid use was one of the few issues they could all agree on. After covering up its rampant use, I won’t accept baseball’s patent rejection that the game is free and clear of steroids and that all players, even the great Albert Pujols, should now be above suspicion.
Baseball writers lament the fact that we now live in an age where every single statistic is subject to doubt and suspicion. Yet no one suspects Pujols for the fact that he is hitting home runs at the rate of one every 6.63 AB’s (his career HR/AB rate is 14.69). Obviously it is too soon to tell if Albert Pujols will challenge Barry Bonds’ single-season HR record but I would hope that skepticism will rain down upon Pujols in the same fashion in which it has inundated Bonds. I know that it will not – Bonds’ boorish personality stands in marked contrast to Pujols’ pleasant and gracious demeanor – but it would be hypocritical and selectively unjust otherwise.
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