SAN FRANCISCO -- If home runs held the same currency as they did in the old days, now would be a very good time to pull out a St. Louis Cardinals schedule and begin circling late-season dates on which Albert Pujols could smash the single-season home run record of 73.
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He has replaced You Know Who -- the Giant of San Francisco, which opened an apropos three-game set Monday against Pujols' Cards -- as the game's most feared slugger. He is last season's NL MVP. He hits for power, average and entertainment.
He tops so many of baseball's offensive charts these days that it would take People magazine years to produce as many lists.
But while there is no better offensive player to watch these days than Pujols ...
Does anyone have the energy -- or faith -- for another summer of charting record home run paces?
Pujols is doing the work of a Superhero, and good for the Cardinals. The record home run pace means more to them than it does to the game (not, as Jerry Seinfeld might say, that there's anything wrong with that).
Because we know too much. Wild home run numbers have more to do with the leap of faith you're willing to take than they do with the record book.
Pujols, in as newsworthy a statement as was made before the opener of a three-game series here, said he has been tested for steroids three times already this season. Obviously, he's passed.
But it is a fact that baseball's steroids testing program, admirable as it is now, has loopholes. Human growth hormone (HGH) can only be detected via a blood test.
And they don't administer those (nor, to be fair, does any professional sports league).
Now don't mistake this as an accusation, insinuation or anything else against Pujols. Far as we know, he's cleaner than a rubbing alcohol-swabbed thermometer.
But the fact remains, home runs do not come with the same historical clout they once did -- other than in relation to whether or not they help the team win that night's game.
