Pujols and Votto Might Save Baseball

Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals and Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds are in a very unique situation. Both men are leading their respective teams into September with the hopes of securing a playoff spot in the National League. Both men have played All-Star quality baseball throughout the season. However, both of these players are also neck and neck in a race for the Triple Crown, a feat that has not been accomplished since Carl Yastrzemski did it in1967.

As of this writing, Pujols is batting .321 with 35 home runs and 95 RBIs. Joey Votto is batting .326 with 32 home runs and 92 RBIs. The historical ramifications are almost sure to be felt if either of these guys can manage to finish the season as the league leader in each of these categories. Twelve of the fourteen players who have won the Triple Crown have gone on to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

However, in the grand scheme of things, there is more at stake here than statistics and achievements. Pujols and Votto have put themselves in position to steer baseball back towards better days, and out of the dark days of the "Steroid Era".

Twelve years ago, there was another tight race heading into the last full month of the MLB season. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were chasing Roger Maris' single season record of 61 home runs. The country was simply captivated. Big Mac and Sammy were icons. Like Pujols and Votto today, McGwire and Sosa were also hoping to restore some luster to the game. After the 1994 players strike, baseball had struggled to regain the trust and support of the fans. So, as McGwire and Sosa personally saw to it that chicks continued to dig the long ball, players around the league were juicing up so that they too could get in on the fun.

The effects were ridiculous and infuriating. Baseball players began to look almost cartoonish in stature. Both McGwire and Sosa eclipsed the mark of 61 home runs that year. Sosa finished with 66, but Mac became the new record holder as he smashed 70 out of the yard. The record would not stand for long as another juiced up player, Barry Bonds, would hit 73 dingers just three years later in 2001. The neck sizes of the players seemed to be inflating just as rapidly as the numbers in a game that cherished numbers and tradition above all else. Journalists and fans alike began to demand that asterisks be placed beside the names of the juicers in the record books. And then the wheels came off completely.

The Mitchell Report, a 409-page tome which was released on December 13, 2007, laid out the ugly truth about the rampant use of performance enhancing drugs in MLB, and it named names. Major League Baseball, of course, panicked and scrambled for scapegoats. The once beloved McGwire and Sosa became media whipping boys. Barry Bonds remained arrogant, and Roger Clemens declared his innocence over and over. In fact, Clemens demanded that he be allowed to proclaim his innocence before Congress. He now faces jail time because Congress is fairly certain that he lied to them, and has brought him up on perjury charges.

It's fitting that while Roger Clemens faces indictments this Fall, Albert Pujols and Joey Votto are putting forth their best efforts to bring some dignity back to the game that he cheated. With any luck at all, history will prove that Pujols and Votto are playing clean, that they are playing the game the right way. Baseball, it seems, is headed for better days.