Hit the road, Jack!

Make no mistake about it: St. Louisians are still bitter over the departure of former first basemen Albert Pujols, but as the Cardinals hang in the divisional race and the Angels are essentially out of it this year, the tension has mellowed down significantly, and people even have put him in the past.

Now, Albert Pujols is once again buzzing around St. Louis. Why? Because last week, former Cardinals first basemen Jack Clark, who played for the Redbirds from 1985-1987, proclaimed on his radio show alongside host Kevin Slaten that Pujols has been taking PED’s (for those few people that don’t know, those are performance enhancing drugs) throughout his career. The accusations came as a huge shock to both Cardinal Nation and Pujols himself. Clark claimed he talked to Pujols’ former personal trainer, Chris Mihlfield, who said that “I know for a fact he was [using PED’s]”. Pujols was outraged by the accusations, and has filed a defamation lawsuit against Clark, Slaten, and WGNU, the radio station where Slaten and Clark used (they were later fired) work for. Mihlfield, however, later claimed he hadn’t talked to Clark in well over a decade, and stated Pujols never would do anything like that.

This accusation comes at a time when the game of baseball is under a dark, stormy cloud. With the recent Biogenesis scandal, in which 13 players were suspended for PED usage, including Nelson Cruz, Johnny Peralta, and most namely, Alex Rodriguez (he is currently appealing his record 211-game suspension), MLB has become engulfed with multiple substance abusing players. The spark of steroid usage and accusations became prominent in December of 2007 when the Mitchell Report, which revealed the names of 89 former and current MLB players who at one point or another, had taken performance enhancing drugs.

Statistically, Pujols has been on the decline ever seen he arrived in Los Angeles, and is most likely going to miss the rest of the current season with a lingering foot injury. However, one cannot believe Pujols is totally innocent and off the hook here. After all, how many players in MLB once believed to be steroid-free athletes have eventually admitted their usage of it? The answer: too many. And also considering how many of them are well-known names: Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, and Andy Pettitte to name a few, although Pettitte says he only used them for medicinal purposes, which is still disputed, makes it hard to totally believe Albert, although it really seems unlikely someone such as him, since he’s prided himself on being a clean athlete.

Jack Clark has since been fired from his radio show, which was not affiliated with insideSTL or the St. Louis Cardinals organization. Him and Slaten have stated they will counter-sue Pujols. It’s a big risk for Clark, who has already been through bankruptcy in the 1990’s due to his obsession with cars in one of the biggest bankruptcy cases for an athlete in the ’90s.  He was able to get out of bankruptcy, but to sue someone with Pujols’ earnings is a risky move, especially if he is wrong, which the signs seem to point in that direction.

Regardless, the question remains: Did Albert Pujols ever take steroids or any other performance enhancing drug(s)? In a game as tainted as Major League Baseball, it’s hard to trust any athlete in their denial. What if Pujols were to be found guilty of usage? What would that do to not only the reputation of not only him, but the Angels organization (considering how much they went through to sign him) and to our opinion on Jack Clark? On the other side, what if Pujols is completely innocent, and Clark just made a false accusation to further diminish the public’s opinion of Albert? If so, it seems to have backfired, as people are rallying countrywide in support of Pujols and his denial, which is understandable, considering this accusation came out of nowhere. It’s an accusation that has seem to done more harm than good for Clark, cost him his job, a lot of respect, and if Pujols successfully sues, his money: something Clark cannot afford to lose again.

These are dark times in Major League Baseball, times that don’t seem to be changing anytime soon. While it seems unlikely that Pujols would take PED’s, one thing is for sure: Jack Clark has lost a lot of respect from Cardinal Nation, the city of St. Louis, and from people across the country.