Why Rafael Palmeiro Should Be In The Hall Of Fame

Baltimore Orioles’ Rafael Palmeiro was one of the best players in the history of Major League Baseball, and he should undoubtedly be in the Hall of Fame.

Rafael Palmeiro. When you hear that name, you likely think the Baltimore Orioles, the Texas Rangers, and one of two things.

You might think of an incredible all-around baseball player, a guy who would crush home run after home run every year, had a swing that was a work of art, and a glove that might actually have been golden.

Or, you may recall a man who was at the heart of the Jose Canseco steroid scandal. You think of his testimony to Congress where he said he had never taken steroids. Period. And then you remember how, not long after, he tested positive for steroids.

Maybe I’m wrong and you think of his not-at-all-awkward Viagra commercials, who knows?

The point is, Rafael Palmeiro is a controversial figure in professional baseball, and he should absolutely be in the Hall of Fame.

“While other players have been a bit dodgier in their denials of using steroids over the years, Palmeiro was and has remained adamant. He has never intentionally done steroids. Period.”

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already made your decision. In fact, it seems that the majority of people are happy to discard Palmeiro as another one of those athletes who cheated to succeed at the game of baseball in the most shameful period of Major League Baseball’s history since Arnold Rothstein was fixing the World Series.

Palmeiro is mentioned in the same breath as players like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa, players who are essentially the faces of the MLB steroid scandal.

But I’m here to tell you that Palmeiro is different, that he doesn’t belong in the same group as those guys, and here’s why:

First, let’s start with his performance on the field and put steroids out of our minds for a second. Palmeiro ended his career with 569 home runs (12^th all-time), 3,020 hits (25^th all-time), 1,835 RBIs (16^th, all-time), and 1,663 runs (31^st all-time), all with a career .288 batting average.

He’s also one of only five players to have more than 500 home runs and 3,000 hits — a club that includes Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, and most recently, Alex Rodriguez. All of those players (except for Rodriguez obviously) are in the Hall of Fame.

Add all that in with three Gold Glove awards and four All-Star Game appearances, and you’ve got one serious résumé.

So based on his performance alone, I don’t think anyone would doubt that Palmeiro is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But saying “let’s put steroids out of our minds for a second” is kind of cheating, right?

I don’t think anyone would argue that Palmeiro didn’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame based on his performance, it’s because he cheated, and even worse, he lied about it. Well, let’s look into that.

It came down to one test. Jose Canseco has implicated Palmeiro in his book as someone he had done steroids with. Palmeiro, along with Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa, testified at a Congressional hearing, and Palmeiro said “I have never used steroids, period.”

It was, definitive. Never. Period. While other players have been a bit dodgier in their denials of using steroids over the years, Palmeiro was and has remained adamant. He has never intentionally done steroids. Period.

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“Intentionally” is the key word here. Because on August 1^st, 2005, just a few days after Palmeiro hit his 3,000^th hit, Palmeiro was suspended for ten days for testing positive for steroids. For Palmeiro, the timing couldn’t have been worse, just five months after he told Congress that he had never done steroids.

To everyone, this completely invalidated everything Palmeiro had said; and it made him out to be a liar, and one that was caught, which is almost worse than being thought a liar but without proof.

However Palmeiro continued to deny it, he said he still had never intentionally taken steroids and that it must have been an accident. Later, he claimed that Miguel Tejada had given him a vitamin B12 shot, and that it must have been tainted.

After that claim, much of the baseball community, and almost all of Baltimore, collectively dismissed Palmeiro’s claim, saying he was making excuses and that Tejada would never do that.

At the time, Tejada had never tested positive for steroids, and he even provided samples of his B12 shots that tested negative. Everything seemed to be against Palmeiro and it looked like he was just making excuses.

However, two years later, the Mitchell Report comes out and Miguel Tejada is in it, with checks produced showing he paid for HGH and testosterone. Follow that logically, and all of a sudden, the idea that Tejada gave Palmeiro a tainted B12 shot doesn’t sound so insane.

Palmeiro is also in a unique position because his steroid usage was deeply investigated. A Congressional committee was formed to see if he had committed perjury, and what they found was that, no, he most likely had not.

Specifically, they found that no one, aside from Jose Canseco, had any knowledge, or even any suspicion that Palmeiro had ever used steroids. The doctors and trainers from his time in Baltimore and Texas all said that he didn’t even have the body type of a steroid user.

So ultimately, with all the gathered evidence, the Congressional committee determined that there was no evidence linking Palmeiro to steroid usage before his Congressional hearing.

Let’s pause on that for a second. That hearing was in 2005, so if we take all of 2005’s statistics out of Palmeiro’s career and pretend that he retired in 2004, that leaves his career statistics at 551 home runs, 2,922 hits, and 1,775 RBIs, along with his three Gold Gloves and four All-Star appearances.

That’s still, in my opinion, a Hall of Fame-worthy career; and that’s assuming he took steroids after the Congressional hearing, which I believe is a false assumption.

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So why should Rafael Palmeiro be in the Hall of Fame? I think the answer is pretty obvious. If he hadn’t tested positive that one time, he would’ve been a first-ballot Hall of Famer, no question.

His performance on the field from just about every perspective was Hall of Fame worthy. But he did test positive that one time, and it tainted everything after that.

Palmeiro is one of the greatest players to have ever played the game of baseball, one of the purest hitters (with one of the most beautiful swings) ever to step on a diamond.

And because of what seems like one stupid, singular mistake, he’ll never be recognized for it. He’ll forever be lumped in with names like Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, and Canseco, and he doesn’t deserve that. He deserves a plaque in Cooperstown.