Cheering Pujols Is a Matter of Trust

Can we love Albert Pujols?

Is it safe?

When we haven’t completely settled up with Barry Bonds and the rest, are we healed?

George Mitchell hasn’t even had a door slammed in his face yet. First, he’d have to knock on one.

More than 100 players, major and minor leaguers, have been suspended in the last 14 months, all for twisting the game and their lives with performance-enhancing drugs.

Fastball velocities are down in every bullpen in the game. Red Bull’s never been more precious.

Meanwhile, Jose Canseco is batting cleanup in an over-30 league in the San Fernando Valley. Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire went home or were sent there; one can only guess at how many users slinked away with them. Bonds is so tired he barely has the energy to snarl at reporters. But he’s managed. He’s a gamer.

It is a strange, squishy place, this baseball season. Too much Bonds. Too much stinkin’ reality. Not enough authenticity.

Then, Pujols pops 22 home runs in 44 games.

Can we trust baseball to tell us it’s OK?

Is “baseball clean” too much like “camping clean”?

We’d like to believe the worst is gone. We’d like to know the next time Tony La Russa defends a player against drug accusations, the guy won’t puddle up in front of Congress a few weeks later. We need to believe the game has retaken the game.

Then, Pujols rolls out to an 81-homer pace.

Oh no.

It’s 1998 again, but we’re wiser. It’s 2001 again, but we’re colder.

Another few months like this and we’ll be back in St. Louis, this time looking in on Pujols, holding him up against Ruth, Maris, Sosa, McGwire and Bonds.

We’ll be warier. And it won’t be our fault. It’s a mistrust borne of the past decade, from the players whose choices slosh up on Pujols’ work ethic and maturity and talent, from a single finger pointed at a congressman.

Before the Cardinals played the Giants here Monday night, Pujols said he’d been tested for steroids three times this season. He said he’s passed all three. There have been no announcements otherwise.

Can we go through this again?

Are we ready?

“This is so ridiculous,” Cardinals center fielder Jim Edmonds said. “I don’t understand why they’re still talking about a guy who has been playing five years, has been drug-tested in three of them, and has never tested positive. I don’t think comparing him to anybody, or putting the word ‘steroids’ near his name is even fair. The sooner the media and the people around it get over it, the better off the game will be.”

Yeah, well, we tried that once. Then the collective bargaining agreement was amended twice, everybody ended up on Capitol Hill and a couple of Bonds’ buddies went to prison.

Pujols, sweating from batting practice, said he likes and respects Bonds. When Bonds singled in the first inning, the two of them shared a laugh at first base. Maybe Bonds warned him about the inconveniences that come with home-run records.

“You guys are always ragging and wiping the floor with his name,” Pujols said, “and that’s sad.”

Yeah, well, a few years of scandal, a trip to a federal grand jury and a possible perjury indictment, and we start to figure it out.

The subject made Pujols’ lips go as thin as his patience.

“If you don’t have any baseball questions,” he said, “we have nothing to talk about.”

After a moment, he added, “I think if you test positive, you’re not innocent.”

His glare said, “That’s that.”

Baseball’s track record said, “Maybe. We’re trying to catch up.”

Thing is, Pujols makes sense. His career makes sense. He showed up big, showed up great, then got better. The year Bonds hit 73 home runs, Pujols, then a rookie, hit 37 home runs and batted .329. Five years later, pitchers can barely slip a pitch past him. He’s the best hitter in the game.

It so happened that Pujols arrived in San Francisco as Bonds stood even with Ruth. So, as Bonds is put into context with Ruth and Hank Aaron, Pujols is put into context with Bonds, who is 15 years older.

In his first five seasons, Bonds hit 117 home runs. In his first five, Pujols hit 201. Someday, with health and luck and a decent hitter behind him, this could all be Pujols’.

He shook his head.

“I don’t ever want to be in that life he’s leading right now,” he said.

We don’t have to love him.

We could start by holding hands.