Albert Pujols drops defamation suit against Jack Clark

An ugly situation that was only going to get worse came to an end on Monday, as Los Angeles Angels’ slugger Albert Pujols dropped his defamation suit against Jack Clark.

Jerry Crasnick of ESPN reports the following:

"‘I have accepted Jack Clark’s retraction and apology to resolve my lawsuit against him and clear my name,’ Pujols said in a statement released Monday evening.Clark created a stir on St. Louis sports talk radio last summer when he said he knew “for a fact” that Pujols was a ‘juicer,” and added that he had knowledge of a trainer who had given PEDs to the veteran slugger. Clark’s radio show was subsequently cancelled.”"

That’s just it. Clark had no right to say those things about Pujols, but he has paid the price and then some. Besides having Pujols file a defamation lawsuit against him, he was immediately panned for the comments, treated like a joke, and fired before his radio show made it a week on the air. Once Clark issued a statement taking the comments back, there wasn’t much left to be done. Clark’s statement read as follows:

"I would like to address Albert Pujols’ pending defamation lawsuit and re-confirm that I have no knowledge whatsoever that Mr. Pujols has ever used illegal or banned PEDs…I publicly retract my statements that Albert Pujols used such substances. During a heated discussion on air, I misspoke and for that I sincerely apologize.”"

Misspoke, eh? Nevertheless, there’s nothing left for Pujols to gain other than kicking Clark while he’s down; the slugger clearly won in the court of public opinion and kept his reputation in tact. The threat of a lawsuit was enough, and now everybody can move on.