Bad Baseball

Albert Pujols is a big man. There’s no denying that. He was big to begin with. In fact, his first year with the Cardinals he was required to lose in excess of 15 pounds just to make the team, I guess you could call him a stout kid. But there’s a difference between this 24 year old and the man opposite his age, 42.

Barry Bonds and others have embarrassed baseball. Look at a picture of Barry Bonds when he was Albert’s age, he was tiny. Warning track power maybe. What makes a man get bigger as he gets older instead of more frail? I think we know the answer to that now.

Was McGwire justified in using androsterone to help bulk up as he entered his early thirties? Is his 70 homeruns more legit than Barry’s 73, or for that matter, his last 250 homers? I’d like to think there’s a difference between drinking a supplement in a nasty tasting shake than rubbing a cream on God knows what or dropping some special clear juice under your tongue. And how is “I didn’t know it contained steroids” good enough? How could a freakin’ grown man “not know.” Either Barry Bonds is the biggest moron ever to roam the face of the earth, or he is the biggest bold-faced liar baseball has seen since Pete Rose walzed off of the scene.

I am dissapointed. My grandfather is rolling over in his grave right now because he said it all along. I feel sorry for protecting Barry like I did, saying, “Maybe he’s just been working harder to get bigger.” Maybe he has, but in inappropriate ways.

I love the sport of baseball with all my heart there’s left to give after my wife, family, most of all the Lord Jesus, and it tears me apart to see the distortion that’s entered the game with greed, cheating, lying, etc. But isn’t Baseball just one example of pro sports mirroring the condition of the US and the world. No integrity, people willing to do things to get ahead no matter what the end result?

I’ll be praying for baseball.