Here it says that Raffy has fingered his teammate Miguel Tejada as someone who gave him stuff that he (RP) thought might be doctored and led to his positive test for steroids. MLB cleared Tejada immediately.
Can Palmeiro sink any lower?
He has gone from bastion of integrity to a hypocrite who rats on teammates in an attempt to shift the blame.
Wow - seems like he’s trying to surpass Kobe as a top 10 slimy guy…
I was wondering if he plans on playing after this season, because nobody is going to want him as a teammate.
I don’t think Raffy was implying that Miggy gave him steroids, when he thought it was B-12. He is saying that B-12 somehow caused a false-positive result. At least that the impression that I’m getting.
How B-12 could cause a false-positive is beyond me.
Raffy is just digging himself into a bigger hole. This whole thing is still a huge shock for me. Raffy was the last person in MLB I would have suspected of using steriods. It just sucks beyond belief!
Bye-bye Cooperstown.
I think the guy who leaked the story is lower than Palmeiro. And I still think Palmeiro will get into the hall… although whether he does or not doesn’t really matter to me.
If he’s getting into the Hall, he’s probably back on the same timetable as he was pre-steroid.
Pre-steroid he would have likely played again next year then retired and got in on the first ballot 6 years from now.
Now, he’ll likely retire, wait 5 years, not get voted in on the first ballot, and be in in 6 years anyway.
Just speculating.
Here’s what I think happened:
Raffy denies taking steroids.
The investigators ask him if he’d taken any pills, etc., that he didn’t know the origins of.
Raffy says “I got a vitamin pill from Miguel around that time - could that have done it?”
Reporter reads transcript - sees Tejada’s name, writes “Palmeiro Blames Tejada!”
Orioles say Palmeiro’s season over.
At this point it doesn’t matter how Tejadas name came up - the damage is done. Palmeiro is probably finished as a player.
The rest of the year? 2005? How many games are left? Or do they mean 2006 as well?
Sportswriter’s comments
They just meant done for this season and the O’s only have 10 games left. However, this just the begining. I agree with the story that astro just linked to - Palmeiro could just find himself blacklisted.
No one’s going to sign Palmeiro next year. Even the Rangers won’t take him back after this. He’s not going to bring fans in, and he’s demonstrating a talent for being a clubhouse cancer.
Not that we haven’t heard rumors about Tejada in the past, mind you, but trying to shift the blame like this is just lower than low.
That’s pretty much what Palmeiro is saying happened. Indirectly, it does point the finger at Tejada, even if it’s unintentional. It doesn’t matter much; Palmeiro is through.
He never (finger wag) implicated (finger wag) Tejada. (finger wag) Period.
I got a funny feeling about Rafael Palmiero years ago, during the Gold Glove fiasco.
You may all recall that Palmiero was awarded a Gold Glove in 1999 despite playing almost the entire season at first base. It was a major embarassment, as it revealed what many had long suspected, that the managers and coaches who vote on the awards don’t really pay attention to what they’re doing.
Palmiero’s comment to this travesty at that time was “Well, I deserve it anyway, because I should have won it other years and they gave it to someone else.”
I was floored by this comment, even though at the time not much was said about it. Most athletes are smart enough to be modest about awards. When it’s an award that was pretty obviously a mistake, you’d think someone with common sense would have said “There has obviously been a mistake, I feel bad accepting this.” Palmiero’s response… it sounded weird to me, and I thought at the time that either he was miquoted, or there was something not right about him.
His behaviour through this steroid thing has reinforced my earlier impression. He sounds not just like a man with a huge ego, but with an ego so overblown that it’s affecting his ability to deal rationally with other people.
He was a designated hitter most of the season, playing 28 games at first.
It is pointing the finger at Tejada, because if his question was just whether B-12 could cause a positive test, he didn’t have to mention any names.
He only had to mention a name if it was B-12 from a particular person he thought might have done it.
Which of course is what I meant to say, and is the only thing that would have made any sense. I must be more tired than I thought.
At least Jose Canseco was “smart” enough to name names after he quit the game.
My thoughts of Palmeiro and the Hall of Fame? Every journalist should vote no for five years. Then Rafe is off the journalists ballot. After that, the decision would be in the hands of the veteran’s committee. I’d like to see this decision made by Hall of Famers.
When you take a pill, how do you know what’s in it? If I give you an an aspirin from an aspirin bottle, are you POSITIVE that what you’re ingesting is aspirin? If you get a prescription filled, do you have each pill chemically analyzed before ingesting it, or do you assume that it contains what the prescription calls for?