Has Albert Pujols taken steroids or other performance enhancing drugs?
Unless you were in a coma or blowing rails off a toilet with Jamal Anderson this weekend then you’ve heard that Joe Torre’s favorite fraud tested positive for anabolic steroids visa vie pee pee taken in 2003. Unfortunately your first thought wasn’t concerning A-Rod’s legacy or even how this report might hinder his taxidermy…errr hump session with the corpse formerly known as Madonna. Nope.
You wondered when Albert Pujols is going to have hard evidence proving he has cheated surface. Not if, but when.
As time leaches forward it’s becoming painfully obvious that anyone who achieved prominence in the early part of this decade did so with whatever aide steroids can provide. Mr. Rodriguez joins a distinguished fraternity of PED abusers/deniers that includes but isn’t limited to Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Miggy Tejada, Jason Giambi and Mark McGwire. Hundreds of others have been fingered directly through the Mitchell report or through other conjecture like the tomes of Jose Canseco. Many rational people that don’t have sports talk radio shows or column inches in papers and magazines are pretty content with the way that MLB handles drug abusers- doling out punishment in accordance with the repeated nature of their use. Many more are not as concerned about what players did or didn’t do before their were specifically rules outlining that banned substances were punishable by suspension and fines. I think I speak on behalf of the majority when I say emphatically- we’re over it.
Unfortunately, the way it works in media 2009 we have to pick sides. Either A-Rod’s a scum-sucking cheater not worthy of living, let alone playing baseball or he’s being framed by the ‘media’ , assaulted by the players union and generally getting the shaft because he could buy you and your commentators family 20 times with last weeks paycheck. The truth is more mundane. He didn’t break any rules in 2003 and in the subsequent years he’s passed every test administered by MLB. His statistics in any meaningful category have improved or remained at 2003 levels making a pretty strong case that the roids don’t make the player. At least in his case.
The gross waste of money used by our government to try and prove Bonds juiced is even more disturbing than the immediate public flogging than A-Rod is currently enveloped in. Sure, they cloak it in 'lying to a Grand Jury' cover to make it seem like their defending the honor of law- but you and I both 
know that's a bunch of horse shit. Did he use some sort of supplements to enhance his performance in the late 90's in to the aughts?
Yes. He did.
So did the rest of the guys I listed above. Many were lied to; most should have asked more questions. It’s embarrassing that these guys didn’t get called on their shit earlier and it’s embarrassing we let it go on as long as we did when we knew hitting 70 home runs in a season was pretty fucking unbelievable. It’s time to move on… but it seems like that isn’t going to happen until every single great player from this decade has been brought down.
That’s not good news for Albert Pujols.
Let me be perfectly clear here. I have no evidence that suggests Albert Pujols has taken any PED. All I have is a nagging feeling that this shit storm isn’t not going to effect #5 beyond what has already happened. And if you don’t feel the same way then you’re either stupid or naïve. Probably both.
When the original Mitchell Report was published Channel 2 news used a report from a NY television station saying Pujols was implicated. It turned out that was
false. Then there was that brush with the whole Jason Grimsley affidavit where he was in close contact with the same trainer as Grimsley. I’ll grant you that these two incidences do not prove anything. Not one thing. Except that people… including our own government… have an unhealthy obsession with bringing down everyone. It’s a full-on dick measuring contest between all sorts of agencies, investigators and media outlets and the only name that would top Bonds or Rodriguez is one Albert Pujols and his God loving antidotes. And when so many groups of people want something- they usually get something.
Maybe Pujols is completely 100% innocent of never ingesting anything other than milk and Flintstone vitamins. Frankly, as a fan of his, I hope so. But 2009 looks to be shaping up as a year of reckoning for PED’s and I’m certain that the only player left that can bring an A-Rod type meltdown to the baseball world is El Hombre. Good luck brother.
What do you think? Is it possible Pujols is just that great? Or has he juiced?
Aaron Hooks writes every Monday for InsideSTL and regularly for CardsDiaspora.com