Unbelievable...

I find it interesting to see how people react to bad news.  Some people are reserved and try to process the information quietly; some flip out right away, but are then fine down the road; others become more and more cynical and begin to question everything.

Perhaps the worst story to hit major league baseball in the last decade has been the steroids issue.  Class-act guys went before Congress (whose involvement I'm still questioning) and came away looking like total idiots.  Star players (whether they've been proven guilty or not) have basically been black-listed by baseball writers who have taken it upon themselves to be the moral authority and gatekeepers of the Hall of Fame.  Players that we haven't heard of have been caught using, served their suspension and got on with their careers.

Suddenly, with the discovery that Alex Rodriguez used for a couple years, everybody is under suspicion once again.  Sports Illustrated recently published an article about Albert Pujols and how he is now the undisputed best player in baseball who hasn't been caught with performance enhancing drugs (or PEDs as they are calling them now).  It's a good article, called The Power to Believe.  Take a few minutes and look over it.

Some have responded very positively to this article, which I think is well written and aptly shows Albert Pujols as an honest, clean, hard-working, man of faith.  But others are much more cynical.  

I have to say, I usually like the postings that go up on Fungoes.  They are usually well thought out pieces full of all sorts of stats that even I don't understand.  But his posting on this article by SI just reeks of somebody who has been scorned too many times by favorite players being accused of cheating.  He is ruthless and very doubtful of Pujols' story, even criticizing the interviewer for not pushing back enough.

Now, I'm not saying that we eat up everything like a giant piece of birthday cobbler.  (Yeah, yeah, I know, most people have cake.  I like cobbler, and it's my blog, so get over it!)  But we also can't approach life assuming that everyone is lying through their teeth and cheating at every chance they get.  I, for one, believe that Pujols is easily the best player in baseball, and quite possibly the best person in baseball.  They type of cyncism that is on display in this post displays little more than a bitter soul lashing out at anything positive in this world.  It's sad.  Really sad.