Rafael Palmeiro

Rafael Palmeiro

Palmeiro with the Texas Rangers in 2003
First baseman
Born: (1964-09-24) September 24, 1964
Havana, Cuba
Batted: Left Threw: Left
MLB debut
September 8, 1986, for the Chicago Cubs
Last MLB appearance
August 30, 2005, for the Baltimore Orioles
MLB statistics
Batting average .288
Hits 3,020
Home runs 569
Runs batted in 1,835
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Rafael Palmeiro Corrales (born September 24, 1964) is a retired Cuban American Major League Baseball first baseman and left fielder. Palmeiro was an All-American at Mississippi State University before being drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1985. He played for the Cubs (1986–1988), Texas Rangers (1989–1993, 1999–2003), and the Baltimore Orioles (1994–1998, 2004–2005). He was named to the MLB All-Star Team four times, and won the Gold Glove three times. He is a member of the 500 home run club and the 3,000 hit club and is one of only five players in history to be a member of both.

Days after recording his 3,000th hit, Palmeiro was suspended for testing positive for an anabolic steroid.

Early life

Palmeiro was born in Havana, Cuba and graduated from Miami Jackson High School in Miami, Florida. Although he was drafted by the New York Mets in the 8th round of the 1982 draft, he did not sign.

College

Palmeiro was recruited by Ron Polk and enrolled at Mississippi State University, where he played college baseball for the Bulldogs in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). He is the only SEC player to have ever won the triple crown. A teammate of Will Clark, the two were known as "Thunder and Lightning".[1] Clark and Palmeiro were known to dislike each other, dating back to their time at Mississippi State.[2] On June 11, 1985, Palmeiro signed with the Chicago Cubs as the 22nd pick in the 1st round of the 1985 draft.[3]

Major league career (1986–2005)

Palmeiro debuted on September 8, 1986 in a game between the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field, as a left fielder.[4] During his tenure with the Cubs, he normally played left field, though occasionally he would play other outfield positions or first base. Palmeiro was the runner up to National League batting champion Tony Gwynn in 1988 with a .307 batting average, only six points below Gwynn's. During that year rumors spread about a relationship between Palmiero and Ryne Sandberg's wife, Cindy. This led to issues in the locker room and after the 1988 season, Palmeiro was traded by the Cubs to the Texas Rangers along with Jamie Moyer and Drew Hall in exchange for Mitch Williams, Paul Kilgus, Steve Wilson, Curtis Wilkerson, Luis Benitez, and Pablo Delgado.

Palmeiro in a Spring training game for the Baltimore Orioles against the Boston Red Sox, 2005.

Upon moving to the American League, Palmeiro was primarily used as a first baseman or designated hitter. Palmeiro blossomed as a hitter while with the Rangers, leading the league in hits in 1990 and doubles in 1991. In 1990, he was third in the American League in batting.

Prior to Palmeiro's 1995 season, he had hit more than 30 home runs only once (37 in 1993). Starting in 1995, Palmeiro began a streak of 38+ home run years that continued through the 2003 season. He hit 373 home runs during this nine-season span, while also driving in over 100 runs in each of these seasons. However, Palmeiro never led the league in home runs, and is history's most prolific home run hitter to have never won the home run crown.

On May 11, 2003, Palmeiro hit his 500th home run off David Elder in a game against the Cleveland Indians. Two years later, Palmeiro joined Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Alex Rodriguez, and Eddie Murray as the only players in major league history to get 3,000 hits and 500 home runs when he got his 3,000th base hit off Joel Piñeiro during a game against the Seattle Mariners on July 15, 2005. Because most of Palmeiro's home runs came with the Rangers and Orioles, he is one of only four players in history to hit at least 200 home runs for two different clubs.

Palmeiro played in 2,831 major league games, the most by any player who never played in the World Series.

Palmeiro won three straight Gold Glove awards as a first baseman in the American League from 1997–1999. His 1999 award was highly controversial because Palmeiro had played just 28 games at first base,[5][6][7] compared to 128 games as the designated hitter.

Palmeiro filed for free agency on October 29, 2005, indicating he would attempt to play his 20th season in baseball.

Independent League comeback

On September 17, 2015, it was announced that Palmeiro would sign with the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball to play alongside his son, Patrick Palmeiro.[8] He started for the first time for the Skeeters on September 18, 2015. Skeeter fans quickly gave him the nickname "The Saccharin Slugger."[9]

Post-career honors

Palmeiro was inducted into the Mississippi State University Hall of Fame on October 11, 2008.[10] In 2009, he was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame.[11] In 2012 Rafael Palmeiro was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.[12]

Palmeiro became eligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011. He received 64 votes, or 11.0 percent of total ballots cast; the threshold for entry is 75 percent. According to Barry M. Bloom on Major League Baseball's official website: "Palmeiro should have been a sure-fire first-ballot inductee, as a member of the 500-homer, 3,000-hit club, but was suspended in 2005 after testing positive for steroid use. He received only 11 percent of the vote.".[13] On January 8, 2014, Palmeiro received insufficient support to remain on the HOF ballot in future years, when he received only 25, or 4.4% of votes.[14]

Steroids

Former Rangers teammate José Canseco identified Palmeiro as a fellow steroid user in his 2005 book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big, and claimed he personally injected Palmeiro with steroids. On March 17, 2005, Palmeiro appeared at a Congressional hearing about steroids in baseball and, while under oath, denied ever using steroids and stated, "Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids, period. I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never."[15]

On August 1, 2005, Palmeiro was suspended for ten days after testing positive for a steroid.[16] The Washington Post reported that the steroid detected in Palmeiro's system was a "serious" one.[17] According to The New York Times, Palmeiro tested positive for the potent anabolic steroid stanozolol.[18] In a public statement, Palmeiro disclosed that an appeal of the suspension had already been denied. He released a statement saying, "I have never intentionally used steroids. Never. Ever. Period. Ultimately, although I never intentionally put a banned substance into my body, the independent arbitrator ruled that I had to be suspended under the terms of the program."[19] According to Palmeiro, all of his previous tests over the two years including the 2003 sealed test were negative, and a test he took just three weeks after his positive test was also negative.[20] The House Government Reform Committee would not seek perjury charges against Palmeiro, although they were not clearing him.[21]

Palmeiro returned to Camden Yards following his 10-day suspension on August 11, 2005, although he did not play in the lineup until August 14. Coincidentally, this was the date that had been planned as "Rafael Palmeiro Appreciation Day" in celebration of his 500-home run, 3,000-hit milestone. It was canceled after Palmeiro's suspension. The Baltimore Sun reported that Palmeiro never offered an explanation for his positive test to the MLB arbitration panel, which ran contrary to his public statements.[22] ESPN later reported that Palmeiro implicated Miguel Tejada to baseball's arbitration panel, suggesting a supplement provided to him by Tejada was responsible for his positive test. This supplement was supposedly vitamin B12, though it could have been tainted.[23] Tejada and two unnamed teammates provided B12 samples to the panel, which did not contain stanozolol. However, the committee did say they found "substantial inconsistencies between Mr. Tejada's accounts and the accounts of players A and B."[24] Tejada, who said he received shipments of B12 from the Dominican Republic, was later implicated for steroid use in the Mitchell Report.[25]

Palmeiro continues to strongly deny ever having used steroids intentionally, telling The Baltimore Sun in June 2006, "Yes sir, that's what happened. It's not a story; it's the reality of what happened", and "I said what I said before Congress because I meant every word of it."[26] Palmeiro passed a polygraph test in which he was not asked if he ever used steroids, but in which he did state that he unknowingly ingested them via a B12 injection.[24][27] A 2005 New York Times article expressed one writer's belief that Palmeiro's story could perhaps be the truth.[28]

In December 2007, Palmeiro was included in the Mitchell Report in which it was alleged that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his career. The report did not provide any new evidence and only recapped allegations made by José Canseco, Palmeiro's appearance before Congress, and his subsequent failed drug test. The report also details a conversation Larry Bigbie alleges he had with Palmeiro where he claims "Palmeiro asked him about his source of steroids and human growth hormone (the source was Kirk Radomski) and how the substances made him feel." Bigbie also stated that "Palmeiro denied in those conversations that he had ever used performance-enhancing substances himself."[29]

On December 20, 2007, Palmeiro was also named in Jason Grimsley's unsealed affidavit as a user of amphetamines prior to their being banned by MLB.[30]

Personal life

Palmeiro lives in Colleyville, Texas with his wife and two sons.[31]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Norwood, Andrew (April 29, 2015). "SEC Storied: Thunder & Lightning to Premiere Monday". Maroon and White Nation. FanSided Inc.
  2. ↑ Chass, Murray (9 March 1994). "BASEBALL; Thoughts Deep in the Heart of Texas". New York Times. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "Rafael Palmeiro". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved January 19, 2011.
  4. ↑ "Retrosheet Boxscore: Chicago Cubs 7, Philadelphia Phillies 4".
  5. ↑ 8 Upper by Tom Scocca: Fools' Gold | 11/17/1999
  6. ↑ Gold Glove Award | BaseballLibrary.com
  7. ↑ Jeff Sullivan (2 December 2011). "Searching For A Defense Of Rafael Palmeiro's 1999 Gold Glove". SBNation.com. Vox Media.
  8. ↑ "Rafael Palmeiro to play for Sugar Land Skeeters of Atlantic League". ESPN.com.
  9. ↑ Wray, Brad (HouWray) September 18, 2016, 9:08. Tweet.
  10. ↑ "Mississippi State University M-Club Alumni Association & Sports Hall of Fame". HailState.com.
  11. ↑ College Baseball Foundation – Hall of Fame
  12. ↑ "Rafael Corrales Palmeiro". Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.
  13. ↑ Bloom, Barry (2010-01-05). "Cooperstown calls for Alomar, Blyleven". MLB.com. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
  14. ↑ 2014 Hall of Fame Voting. Baseball-Reference.com.
  15. ↑ "Palmeiro docked 10 days for steroids". ESPN.com.
  16. ↑ "Players suspended under baseball's steroids policy". espn.com. 2006-06-07. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  17. ↑ Arangure, Jr., Jorge (August 2, 2005). "Palmeiro Suspended For Steroid Violation". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  18. ↑ Chass, Murray (December 28, 2005). "Palmeiro Cites His Own Naïveté and Ponders Mystery of It All". The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  19. ↑ WLTX.com Sports
  20. ↑ Baseball: Palmeiro weighs unknowns International Herald Tribune
  21. ↑ "Congress won't charge Palmeiro with perjury". ESPN.com.
  22. ↑ Baltimore Sun (19 August 2005). "Palmeiro provided no details about test". baltimoresun.com.
  23. ↑ "Source: Palmeiro named Tejada before panel". ESPN.com.
  24. 1 2 Arangure, Jr., Jorge (November 11, 2005). "Congress Declines to Prosecute Palmeiro for Perjury". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  25. ↑ "Miguel Tejada excerpt from Mitchell Report". Houston Chronicle.
  26. ↑ Baltimore Sun (30 June 2006). "Palmeiro speaks". baltimoresun.com.
  27. ↑ "ESPN.com: Page 2 : Pass the B-12".
  28. ↑ Chass, Murray (November 13, 2005). "Resolution, and Doubts, Regarding Palmeiro". The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  29. ↑ "Mitchell Report" (PDF). pp. 103–06, 203.
  30. ↑ "Affidavit: Grimsley named players". CNN. 2007-12-20. Archived from the original on February 16, 2009. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
  31. ↑ Crasnick, Jerry. "Palmeiro now laying low with tarnished image". ESPN. Retrieved January 19, 2011.

External links

Preceded by
John Olerud
Bernie Williams
Nomar Garciaparra
Joe Randa		 American League Player of the Month
July 1993
June 1998
June 1999
August 1999 (with Iván Rodríguez) 		Succeeded by
Frank Thomas
Albert Belle
Joe Randa
Albert Belle
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