Rafael Palmeiro’s story about his positive steroid test is hard to believe, and he knows it. Still, that story hasn’t changed. In an interview with Tom Verducci, Palmeiro talks about PEDs and his Hall of Fame candidacy
Rafael Palmeiro became the 19th member of the 500 home run club with this blast Five hundred sixty-nine home runs, 3,020 hits and one positive steroid test. That is the Hall of Fame candidacy of Rafael Palmeiro in one sentence. He gets a second chance Dec. 4. He is one of—the only one with a failed test on his playing record.
Palmeiro’s infamously pointed his finger as he denied using steroids during a Congressional Committee on Government Reform hearing on March 17, 2005.the claim by Jose Canseco in a 2005 book that Canseco introduced Palmeiro to steroids “I understand people might not believe it,” he says. “The only thing I can say is logically, why would I do that? Right after Congress? At the end of my career? My body didn’t change. Did I hit 500 home runs? It would probably have been my last year. I would have never done that intentionally. Why would I take that amount of risk?”
“That was the only time,” he says. “I won the lottery in reverse. I was the older one. I should have known better. I was like, ‘What the heck happened here?’ I don’t know if [Tejada] got it from the Dominican [Republic], Miami, a personal doctor. … Those are things I should have asked. I never should have taken it.
I remind him his teammate and friend, Iván Rodríguez, was voted into the Hall by the writers despite Canseco’s allegation that Rodríguez also used steroids on that Texas team. In 2009, Tejada pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his knowledge regarding steroids in baseball. He also said he purchased human growth hormone but threw it in the trash without using it.
Mark McGwire did appear on a 2016 committee ballot, but he retired before drug testing with penalties began in ‘04. The Hall reported he received “fewer than five votes” on the Today’s Game ballot. He has not appeared on a second ballot.
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