Albert Pujols's free agency was supposed to be the big story of 2011, but MLB rumor mills so far have been mostly silent about the St. Louis Cardinals' generational slugger. The only offer outside St. Louis came from the Miami Marlins, who've since signed Jose Reyes. The reason, if you believe a whispering cadre of sportswriters: his age, currently listed at 31, is in doubt again, for the first time since he emerged as the best player in baseball. The unfortunate thing, both for us, Albert Pujols, and those sportswriters, is that none of them have yet bothered to show their work.
Dan Le Batard was the first to re-raise these concerns, doing a neat run around journalism by saying that he had unnamed sources who thought, for unnamed reasons, that Pujols was older than he said he was. More recently Jon Heyman has light-weighted in, saying teams are skeptical of Pujols's age and suggesting he produce a birth certificate. (Donald Trump could not be reached for comment.)
It wouldn't be shocking if it turned out Albert Pujols would be older than he claimed—but it is a little startling that a bunch of name-brand journalists have decided against doing any actual journalism in the course of spreading this decade-old rumor.