When Albert Pujols recently hit the 600th home run of his career, I went to the Elias Book of Baseball Records to check its list of players Pujols joined. I was struck most by three names: Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa.
Bonds heads the list with 762, Rodriguez is fourth with 696 and Sosa eighth with 609.
I cite these three former players because their home run totals are questionable. Their totals are questionable because the players who hit those home runs have been linked to the use of performance enhancing drugs. They hit the home runs, but how many did they hit that were chemically aided?
None of the 600 home runs Pujols hit has been questioned because he has never been linked to PEDs or accused of using them. He has nothing to confess. The same cannot be said for Bonds, Rodriguez and Sosa.
But it was Pujols who called my attention to the select 600 circle and prompted me to call Elias. The call puzzled Steve Hirdt, Elias’ executive vice president.
“People have brought up that awareness now for a generation of baseball players, maybe two,” Hirdt said in a telephone interview.
I had asked about the legitimacy of Bonds, Rodriguez and Sosa on the list.
“All we’re trying to do is record what happens in baseball games,” Hirdt said. “Our job is to record what happens in the games and the results of the games and the components and statistics of the players who got them. It’s a little far afield for us.”
In other words, the good people at Elias do not put themselves in position to judge or determine the legitimacy of home runs and home run hitters. They let someone else assume that role.
Elias cannot be blamed for avoiding taking a position on steroids-aided home runs. Major League Baseball has taken no position, which means all of the statistics stand, whether they be homes runs, other types of hits, runs batted in, ground outs or fly outs.
In fact, the only organization asked or required to take a stand is the Baseball Writers Association of America, whose qualified members vote on candidates for the Hall of Fame.
Occasionally, a writer or writers say the Hall should provide voters with steroid-era guidelines on how to view players, but Hall officials have declined, leaving voters to decide for themselves on players like Bonds, Rodriguez and Sosa.
Sosa’s 609 home runs have not impressed the voters. Neither has the fact that he is the only player in major league history to hit 60 or more in three different seasons. Rather than working for him, those totals have worked against Sosa, raising suspicion about a player who after never hitting more than 40 homers in a season struck 66, 63 and 64 in a four-season span.
In the same period, Bonds, whose career high had been 46, smacked a record 73 at the age of 36-37 and 258 in a five-year span near the end of his career.
If alleged killers can be convicted on circumstantial evidence, Bonds and Sosa, by their production, produced enough circumstantial evidence to hang themselves. Neither, however, ever tested positive for PED use, and Bonds beat a perjury rap in Federal court.
But is there anyone, other than their staunchest supporters who believes they didn’t cheat and hit a significant number of their 600 home runs on their own without chemical aid?
Rodriguez, on the other hand, confessed to PED use, though only when he was nailed by authorities and only after telling as many lies as can fit into a baseball career.
He initially said he used PEDs only when he played for the Texas Rangers. Then after he was caught in the Biogenesis web of drugs, he conceded that he used illegal substances after he joined the Yankees.
Rodriguez, to me, was the most disappointing of PED users. He seemed so clean and pure, unlike players such as Bonds and Sosa, but he turned out to be as phony as the others. Not only did he lie when he denied using banned substances, but he also lied when he finally admitted using.
“When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure,” Rodriguez said in February 2009, putting a phony face on his excuse for using. “I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me, and I needed to perform – and perform at a high level – every day.
“Back then, it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young, I was stupid, I was naïve. I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all-time.
“I did take a banned substance, and for that I’m very sorry. I’m deeply regretful. I’m sorry for that time, I’m sorry to my fans, I’m sorry to my fans in Texas. It wasn’t until then that I ever thought about substances of any kind. Since then, I’ve proved to myself and to everyone that I don’t need any of that.”
Only a year later, though, Rodriguez was back at it – using and lying about it.
In November 2014 he admitted to Federal agents that he had used banned substances and that Anthony Bosch, the man behind Biogenesis, instructed him what to do to beat the system.
Rodriguez was not so cool in his ensuing fight with Major Leagues Baseball over his 211-game suspension. He sued MLB and the Players Association, and he screamed at the arbitrator and stalked out of the hearing, though I believe that was his way of getting out of having to testify. Had he testified, he would have had to have told the truth about his PED use or subjected himself to a perjury charge.
When Bond was enmeshed in accusations about steroids use, Rodriguez was seen as the great hope who would rise to the top of the star heap and rescue MLB from the scourge of steroids. But then Rodriguez tumbled down the hill and wound up buried at the bottom with Bonds.
Years ago, before Rodriguez became entrapped in his own wrongdoing, Frank Robinson was outspoken in his view of PED-aided home runs. He was fourth on the career list with 586, behind only Aaron, Ruth and Mays, and he resented PED-aided hitters passing him. His feeling was perfectly understandable. However, when he began working in the commissioner’s office in 2012, he toned down his comments.
His reluctance to talk about the thorny problem prompted me to look for something he had said about the issue and I found this from 2005 after Rafael Palmeiro had been suspended for testing positive.
“Asked by MLB.com if he would wipe out Palmeiro’s records, Robinson answered: ‘I would. He was found to have used steroids, and he served a 10-day suspension.
“’I was surprised and taken aback that he was using steroids, because I never thought about him being a person that might be a steroids user. I always admired him for the way he went about his work, the way he performed on the field and the way he conducted himself off the field.’”
Elias’ Hirdt, speaking of Robinson said, “Frank Robinson was overlooked even when he was playing because he played when Aaron and Mays were playing. His entire career has been overlooked to some degree too easily. Mays, Aaron, Mantle, even Clemente now.”
Nevertheless, Hirdt added, “I can understand Robinson’s concern. The same if I were Reggie Jackson or Mike Schmidt or anyone of that era when home runs didn’t come as cheaply.” But, he said, “We’ve come through that period of awareness. It’s not as if new evidenced has come forward. The evidence is what it is.”
And no one has suggested evidence that even one of Pujols’ 600 home runs was tainted.
“He’s escaped the stigma that some players have,” Hirdt said.
For anyone who likes landmark achievements, enjoy the Pujols 600th. No other player is within 150 of 600.
Closest to 600 is Miguel Cabrera of Detroit with 451, at 34 years old the youngest of the three active players who have hit at least 250 on Elias’ list. Adrian Beltre of Texas, 38, has 446. Carlos Beltran of Houston, 40, has 429.