Free Republic

Albert Pujols, the Lou Gehrig of our times, picked up his first Most Valuable Player Award the other day. But if baseball had begun testing for drugs when other sports did, it might well have been Pujols' third MVP -- in just five major league seasons. And then we'd be saying, rightly, "This guy might be the best player to come along in 50 years." Pujols had the misfortune of breaking in around the time Barry Bonds developed a taste for "flaxseed oil." Thus, he finished second to Bonds in the '02 and '03 National League voting instead of, perhaps,...

As they get closer to their season opener in Japan, the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners are jittery. They're not the only ones - with war possible, major league baseball is wondering whether now's the time to play ball so far from home. There were no plans Monday for the teams to call off their trip to Tokyo. The A's and Mariners are supposed to leave in a couple of days and scheduled to play a two-game series beginning March 25. But commissioner Bud Selig and baseball officials were busy talking to the State Department, the FBI and other government...