The Chris Moeller Archives

More guilt by speculation

Another baseball player is about to be declared guilty of steroid abuse in the court of public opinion without having tested positive for its use, any evidence implicating him, and with no avenues available to him in which to prove his innocence. And that player is Albert Pujols... so I'm in no mood to let shallow conjecture and low-rated television commentators rule the day.

If you haven't already heard, Pujols' long-time friend, personal trainer and collegiate coach, Chris Mihlfeld, was tabbed by a website and MSNBC news anchor Keith Olbermann as the blacked-out name in the Jason Grimsley federal affidavit that allegedly provided Grimsley with the name of an amphetamine supplier, who, in turn, also wound up as a source of anabolic steroids and Human Growth Hormone.

It's important that we take a step back right about now-- at the onset of the impending public flogging of Pujols-- and consider just what exactly it is that we know about this connection. Even if we assume these classified descriptions to be fact-- and Mihlfeld denies his involvement as a reference to a speed supplier-- the only link to Pujols is that both he and Grimsley shared a trainer during parts of their career. Further, said-trainer was assisting Grimsley with rehabilitation from major reconstructive surgery and Pujols has never gone under the knife. Also, this anonymous trainer is only accused of promoting a supplier of amphetamines, not HGH or any other substance, and by all acknowledgements, "greenies" have been a staple of the clubhouse training table ("leaded" and "unleaded") for generations. I refuse to indict even Major League Baseball without also indicting the news and sports media for looking past a league amphetamine addiction that goes back more than four decades, at least as far back as the publishing of Jim Bouton's book "Ball Four."

The HGH hang-up has left me asking the question-- what about football? If no urine test exists for the hormone, then what is the National Football League doing to rid its sport of its sinister presence? If 4 out of 5 of those behemoths aren't inflated with HGH than I'm Vince Ferragamo. Why aren't the feds dressing up as Cliff Clavin in gridders' suburban cul-de-sacs? Once again, baseball, and its best players besides, are held to a higher standard.

If this connection turns out to be a red herring, let's hope the smearing of Pujols, a popular and otherwise-perceived "ideal" ballplayer and citizen, turns out to be the straw the broke the camel's back in terms of the public's patience with this entire "outraged media" performance.

posted by CM @ 2:10 PM