Pujols dismisses steroid rumors and talk of age, By: Derrick Goold
May 21, 2006
Devout in his inspiration for why he plays the game and proud of the perspiration he has put into how he plays the game, Albert Pujols says his record-setting power this season is a welcome testament to the type of player he is:
A clean one. "You're not going to find anything out about me," the Cardinals first baseman and reigning National League MVP said Wednesday during a far-reaching interview with several members of the media. "They can test me every day if they want. I don't care."
"At the same time, yeah, you feel happy to do (this)," Pujols continued. "I know a lot of people have approached me - friends, (and) I heard about it - that people thought that I was on steroids and some stuff like that. Now that they do the testing and I put up these numbers, it's good. It's good to prove that because I work hard for it. I don't need any type of things like that to help me out with my game. I just take the blessing that the good Lord has given me to perform, to glorify his name and to help out my team to win."
Pujols entered Wednesday's game with 19 home runs and 48 RBI, the most in the majors in both triple crown categories. Already on his resume this season is a major-league record for home runs hit in April (14), the fastest ever to hit his 19th home run (he did that in the team's 37th game), and, coming this week, cover shots on both Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News.
As Barry Bonds takes swings at tying and surpassing Babe Ruth's career mark of 714 home runs, he does so under a fog of suspicion, doubts fueled by allegations of steroid use. The latter part of the 1990s, including Mark McGwire's 1998 home run binge, is awash in the pharmaceutical stench of performance-enhancing drugs and the power they wrought. Since spring 2005, baseball has been hammered about steroid use in its clubhouses and has rewritten its testing policy three times. Now every player is tested several times a season, with the penalty being a 50-game suspension.
Pujols is being touted as the first P.S. slugger, post-steroids. But that was not the only errant rumor he wanted to dispel.
"Do you know how many times I've heard (it) - and I'm sick and tired of people saying that I'm not 26 and whatever," Pujols said of his age, a topic of some debate in the media. "I mean, who cares? I don't care what they say. I know how old I am. I know that I don't use all of those bad things that people are talking about that I use. ... They went after my rookie year and tried to find out my age, and they didn't find anything.
"Like I said. I don't have to hide anything because I haven't done anything wrong."
