Albert Pujols is good; almost as good as winning a million bucks.
But is he good enough to make baseball forget the dark times it has been through the better half of this decade?
That seems to be the million-dollar question. If Pujols sets the home run records, season or career, does he take a rightful seat on the throne as Home Run King?
We've seen this story before. A slugger blazes a pace with long balls, he denies using steroids or any other performance-enhancing drugs, and because baseball is desperate for a role model, we believe.
Pujols has denied use, just as Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, and Sammy Sosa have done in the past. The numbers support Pujols, who has only hit 40+ home runs in a season four times. His career high is 49, set in 2006. His lowest career batting average was .314 in 2002, his second season in the league.
He has 762 career walks to just 540 strikeouts, evidence of his superior vision and Tony Gwynn-like patience. Comparatively, Pujols has 29 multi-home run games in St. Louis in 1,322 games. Mark McGwire previously held that record with 28 in just 545 games in St. Louis.
One can't help but think, this looks too familiar. If Albert keeps up his scorching pace and hits 74 or 62 home runs this season, how are we supposed to react?
When or if Pujols places No. 62 over the wall, do we celebrate and call him the true Home Run King or wait until he blasts No. 74? Critics will say that Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in the age before steroids and PEDs. Supporters will say Pujols has been surrounded by nothing.
No allegations, no positive tests, just accolades.
Pujols has cemented himself as one of greatest power hitters of this generation. He could go down as the best power hitter of today ahead of Ken Griffey Jr. and possibly the best ever. He just needs to keep his body clean.
At age 29, in just his ninth season, with 350 career home runs as of July 8, there is no ceiling for what Pujols can do. And if Pujols does it the way Maris and Babe Ruth did, with no cheating allegations, truths or anything like that, than he should go down as the rightful Home Run King.
Maybe there was some significance to that May 21 home run off the Cubs' Sean Marshall. Statistically it was unimportant, his 14th home run of the season, the 333rd of his career.
Yet when the mammoth home run ball smacked the "I" in the Big Mac Land sign in left field, putting its lights out, Pujols may have marked the end of an era. May it have been the end of the steroid era among baseball's young sluggers?
Only time will tell.
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