Now that Barry Bonds is one homerun from tying Babe Ruth on the career homeruns list, a legion of Bonds-hating press turns affectionately to Albert Pujols. The 26-year-old Cardinals first baseman is on pace to hit about 80 homers, hasn't had a sub-40-HR season in his career, and hasn't been implicated in any steroid use. Yet for all the Pujols-loving we read (and I've written some of it), most is quite superficial. Consider Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Ted Miller's take today:

Pujols works hard. He's humble. He carries himself with dignity on and off the field. And he plays with just enough flair and edge to avoid looking like a namby-pamby.

Based on Pujols's bios at Wikipedia and JockBios, he really does seem like a good guy. Pujols, a religious Christian, grew up poor in the Dominican Republic, picked up English quickly upon moving to Missouri, married an older woman and adopted her infant suffering from Down Syndrome, and started a foundation to fight the disease. He is also—in contrast to Miller's knee-jerk praise—"fiercely proud," says a former English tutor, once clocked opposing catcher Gary Bennett in the face, and irks opponents by openly admiring his moonshots.

Gelf isn't looking for dirt on Albert Pujols, but merely a fully rounded, up-to-date portrait by a major baseball reporter. Maybe ESPN can send Pedro Gomez to shadow Pujols for a month, since Bonds—whom Gomez shadows—is delivering all his best material in front of his own reality-show cameras. Or perhaps Jeff Pearlman can take a ride with Pujols. Let us know Pujols, the man, in full; after all, the media's cartoonish worship of sluggers at a distance is what got us in this Bonds mess in the first place.

Related in Gelf

•An interview with Bonds biographer Jeff Pearlman.