PLAYING THE CARDS HE WAS DEALT

I believe Jack Nicholson said it best in the movie A Few Good Men - the famous line…

“You can’t handle the truth!”

When it comes to baseball, its not that we can’t handle the truth, we may never know the real truth. As an avid baseball fan it’s been tough to swallow the “greats” of the last 25 years as their legitimacy may be far from the truth. Barry Bonds was well on his way to a Hall of Fame career but decided the spotlight in San Francisco wasn’t good enough. He needed the country spotlight on him, and embraced it like he does with everything, arrogance and with an attitude. Barry wanted attention after Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa (less talented players) turned America into home run hungry creatures, as they craved the long ball every time they stepped up the plate. Rafael Palmeiro was Mr. Consistency with 569 career homeruns and 1,835 RBIs, but after taking a “vitamin,” so he claims, turned out to be some sort of performance enhancing drug back in 2005, he has since vanished into thin air. Nowadays two even bigger names as Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez who now have to clear their names. AROD, admitted using during his Texas years, but now it seems it might have been using since he was in high school. How about the ultimate balance machine in Manny Ramirez? Who rarely gets fooled on pitches has now been suspended for 50 games. Whether it was for a legit medical issue or just plain stupidity, some of the biggest names, best hitters of my lifetime are now considered cheaters, frauds and liars. These players we wish we were just for a day, a game, a pitch, an out, will leave this game asking themselves,

“How will I be remembered?”

Unfortunately arrogance and money might reign over a once humbled athlete and turn them into selfish prima donnas. There still some greats out there that haven’t been linked to steroids/PEDs such as Jim Thome, Frank Thomas, and Ken Griffey Jr., but as they wind down their careers we turn to a man, who could, if isn’t already be the face of Major League Baseball. So I turn to you Mr. Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals. You have never been connected to steroids or any other PED that’s out there, and let’s hope it stays that way. From the moment you arrived in the big leagues, you haven’t disappointed and now you’re entering your 9th season and this thing called baseball is all in the sweet spot of your bat. You are 29 years old, with 332 homeruns, over 1,000 RBIs and a staggering career .334 batting average. You have at least 5 to 6 more healthy years of continuing to dominate the competition and cement your legacy of one of the cleanest, greatest baseball players of all time.

We look to you Albert Pujols, not to save baseball, but in the midst of the dark cloud that hangs over the game and certain players, to maintain your elegance and five years after your playing days are over we will be watching give you speech at Cooperstown New York.