The great LA Times columnist Jim Murray once wrote, “I don’t know what it is, but I can’t look at Hulk Hogan and believe that he’s the end result of millions and millions of years of evolution.” The same can be said for a great deal of athletes in general.

While the baseball, legal, and government worlds are busy accusing Barry Bonds of using performance enhancers, why haven’t we accused any of the other stars performing well above the norm?

Dominican Republic native Albert Pujols yesterday tied a major league record by hitting 4 home runs in 4 consecutive at bats, including a game winner and two others against the Cincinnati Reds, division rivals. His 9 homers in 13 games have him hitting one home run in just over every 3.5 at bats. This is undoubtedly an amazing feat, but why not one worth speculating?

The argument defending Pujols can’t be that he hasn’t tested positive yet, because neither has Bonds.

How about the media drawing up pictures from high school, college, and the farm system of the phenoms like Pujols so we can compare their old photos with their new, to see if their heads got bigger – a symptom that experts claim comes from steroid use.

Let’s get a camera in Pujols’s face and drill him Jim Gray-style about speculation that his surge of power comes strictly from performance enhancers.

Let’s have an investigation into his daily routines, and put a 24-hour watch on his life and see if he gets angry, defensive or just overly emotional in general – one of the symptoms experts claim stems from steroid use.

The fact is, Bonds has yet to test positive. That does not mean he has not used illegal performance enhancers, but it does raise the question that if everyone can be so sure that he’s guilty, why can’t other players – who aren’t chasing the elite records – be in the same category?

So before we start talking about purging Bonds statistics from the records, major league baseball needs to be sure that there haven’t been many, many others – as it seems there have been.

Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi, and Rafael Palmeiro all admitted to steroid use, but there is no such call for removing the records, pennants, and championships acquired through their careers.

Heck, Giambi was even seen as a hero, the anti-Bonds, for coming out and admitting to steroid use. As they say, once a cheater, always a cheater. Right?

I don’t necessarily believe so, but think of it as a person who commits a crime against humanity. Are they not seen as potential repeat offenders? Even with a mild punishment, does that mean they’ve learned their lesson and will never go back to their old ways?

Let’s not forget that Bonds, as easy to hate as he is, is still just a baseball player, just like the others in the MLB. He’s just atop the list of them all, and whether or not everyone’s pride right now will allow the notion, Bonds is still one of the greatest to ever play the wonderful game of baseball.

If you’re going to accuse, do so indiscriminately, and not with hate-clouded eyes for a player that has a tendency to make it easy to do just that.

Bonds, listed at 6’2”, 230lbs, is of the same body type as Pujols, listed at 6′3″, 225lbs. Both have extremely large muscles and have hit the baseball further and more frequently than most other players could ever dream.

That said, players like Pujols shouldn’t escape the same scrutiny that Bonds faces, simply because nobody has written a book of accusations… yet.

If history has taught us nothing else, even when we least suspect it, our favorite, most fascinating players players will let us down (See Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden). They will continue even past our days as long as the sports they play remain American businesses.

We, the mere spectators of this business, are under the false impression that professional athletes are merely playing a “game.”

Yes, we get our best entertainment from sports at times, I know I do.

But I bet you millions that professional sports isn’t just “a game.”

So would Bonds, Giambi, Palmeiro, Canseco and the bunch.