McGwire leaned on the back of the batting cage Tuesday afternoon. The heat was choking Busch Stadium. McGwire paid it no mind. Five feet in front of him, through a web of netting, Pujols was taking live batting practice for the first time since suffering the injury that was supposed to keep him out at least four weeks, probably more. That was 17 days ago.
Pujols lined a home run over the center-field wall, and then another deep into the left-field bleachers, and another down the left-field line, and another to the opposite field. McGwire chewed his gum.
His poker face belied his wonderment. What Pujols was doing – it was remarkable. Even if his history of returning from injuries far before the prescribed recovery time made this a little less shocking, this wasn’t a strained muscle like his previous two DL stints. Even if the St. Louis Cardinals did oversell the severity of Pujols’ injury, he still broke a bone in his wrist, the most important body part for a hitter’s swing.
Outside of St. Louis, where they’ll huzzah his expected return to the No. 3 hole and first base at 8:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday against Cincinnati, suspicion and scorn replaced awe and incredulity. For every story link on Twitter that touted Pujols’ impending return, someone tweeted back about Pujols needing human growth hormone to make it. It wasn’t just one or two people, either.
Performance-enhancing drugs’ lasting legacy in baseball comes in these moments, when they’re used as the automated response for anything that defies explanation. They chase Jose Bautista(notes). They taunt Albert Pujols. It’s all speculation, all unfounded, but that doesn’t matter. However much baseball tries to rid itself of that image, it can’t, not yet. It’s that way because of Barry Bonds and Rafael Palmeiro and, yes, even Pujols’ hitting coach, Mark McGwire.
“That’s unfortunate people would say that about him,” McGwire said. “It’s just …”
McGwire stopped for a moment. He took steroids and broke records and captivated the nation. He went into exile and returned after nearly a decade away from the game. He admitted his steroid use and moved on. Or tried to. But his actions leech onto him and crawl onto others, bystanders who baseball can only hope are innocent.
