Look, the curse of Major League Baseball now is that every player has to fight the suspicion of steroids. And you may very well be right, we could all have our head in the sand on Pujols. I honestly didn’t think Manny was on ‘roids. In his case, I thought he was just that naturally talented and didn’t care enough to use them. I thought his problems in Boston stemmed from a lack of motivation and that he was capable of the numbers he put up in LA whenever he focused.

And I got burned, as did the Dodgers.

And there are very few players anymore that I give the benefit of the doubt too. Maybe it’s wishful thinking and maybe it’s me pulling the wool over my own eyes, but I want to believe in Pujols so much that I’m doing everything I can to convince myself he’s clean.

Would I honestly be shocked if he failed a drug test? No, not anymore. Nothing would shock me anymore. But there is something about Pujols that just seems more genuine than other athletes, and the fact that his numbers have stayed consistent throughout his career eliminates one major red flag. I know he “came out of nowhere”, but Johan Santana was a Rule 5 pick and came up as a reliever. So he came out of nowhere too. That happens in baseball from time to time.

All I am saying is that if there is anyone for baseball fans to pin their hopes for purity on, it’s Pujols. And I’m going to take Journey’s advice and won’t stop believing until presented with conclusive evidence to the contrary. He is one of the few players that I think legitimately deserves faith because of the tremendous karma he’s built up with his consistent play, good off-field deeds, and all around high characters. There aren’t many athletes him…so I just hope he doesn’t turn out to be like so many others who have skirted the rules and thrown integrity to the wind.

We’ll never know for sure…but he’s got my trust. And I’m hoping that never breaks.