Why is Barry Bonds, with his .254 average and his .483 slugging percentage getting all the attention while Albert Pujols dominates Major League Baseball? While it?s true that Barry Bonds recently hit home run No. 715, overtaking Babe Ruth for second place on the all-time home run list, Bonds has hit seven long balls this season, compared to Pujols? twenty five. Bonds is threatening to break records, at a sluggish pace, meanwhile Pujols is on pace to shatter Bonds single season home run record, likely without artificial help. I?m not disrespecting what Bonds has accomplished thus far in his long and illustrious career, but the cloud of suspicion over his statistics is too dark to ignore. Seven hundred and fifteen home runs are more than any player in the history of baseball other then all-time leader Hank Aaron. Steroids or not, that kind of output deserves a great deal of respect. However, Pujols is the perfect example of how to accomplish the same types of things both honorably and fairly. While Bonds has remained in the public eye because of the aforementioned steroid allegations and the now infamous book Game of Shadows, instead Pujols? numbers are casting shadows over Bonds this season. Pujols is batting nearly sixty points better than Bonds. He has almost four times as many home runs, more than three times as many runs batted in, and his slugging percentage is nearly double Barry?s. Yet Bonds has the nation?s attention, while Pujols remains on the cusp of becoming simply a household name. Pujols, who is in his fifth major league season, has double the number of home runs Bonds had at the same point in his young career. So is it possible that in ten years Pujols will be challenging for baseball?s most illustrious record? Maybe, maybe not. It?s more likely that come October we?ll be talking about Barry Bonds, the home run record, and his ongoing steroid allegations. Albert Pujols could very well win the National League?s MVP by a wide margin, and it still won?t matter. Because Barry has already cast a pretty big shadow of his own? [email protected]