Yes, the same Rafael Palmeiro that testified to congress that Jose Canseco was lying, and that he’d never taken steroids. In March, Palmeiro vehemently denied taking steroids and seemed offended that Canseco would engage in such character assassination. You would think that he would stop taking them after having such a close call.
Instead, he kept taking them, got caught, and made up another bullshit lie, rather than take responsibility.
This guy is fucking unbelievable. But here’s the best part of the article.
Fucking priceless.
Here is a prescient article outlining why people thought he was lying when he testified. Here’s an article with excerpts of his original testimony. Here’s his statement. Some people have no shame.
Blame the players’ union for that one. Bud “Everyone’s Bitch” Selig wants a first offense to be 50 games, a second 100 games and a third a lifetime ban. This might be the high-profile incident that gives him his wish.
He should have any supplements he’s been taking tested for traces of banned substances. If he truly doesn’t know how a banned substance got into his system, I think the most obvious route would be from a non-banned substance (perhaps, oh I don’t know, some clenbuterol got mixed in with the creatine during production). I can’t imagine someone his age would risk taking steroids. He can’t be that stupid, can he?
This whole “knowingly” qualifier is what bugs me the most. Bullshit, Mr. Palmerio. Bullshit Mr. Shefield. Bullshit Mr. Bonds. There is **n o f u c k i n g w a y ** that these guys just ingest/inject/rub on substances that they have no idea what they are. “I was lied to! I thought it was flax seed oil!” Fuck you. I just came back from Cooperstown to attend the induction of Boggs & Sandberg. (Ryn-o had a great speech) and I come home to this news.
So…Fuck you Rafi. Fuck you for casting a nice dark cloud over what was a great weekend celebrating a great game. I can’t get too mad at the cheaters who pumped up their bodies with steroids before there were any MLB rules against it (It’s just a mild hate—and I’m madder at Bud) but…after the congressional hearings…after a detailed banned substances list…after a a few “What The?” suspensions…after you had the fucking auduacity to wave you finger at members of congress and flat-out call Jose Canseco a liar…after all of that, to still fail a drug test, and then to use ignorance in your defense???
Rafael Palmerio, meet Bobby Bonilla. Welcome to my least favorite players hall of fame. Fuckhat.
I hope your impotent lying sack of shit career never gets a single hall of fame vote.
I don’t think it will. Might delay it for a bit but if the writers suddenly decided to get tough of steroids takers we’d have a five year period with no inductions from the looks of it (not that I would object).
brick, I’m with you on Palmeiro. Our family’s had season tics for the Rangers since they built their original stadium. Now all those previously cherished memories of Rafa coming through in the clutch and his relatively consistent dingers just got a giant kick in the crotch. While his steriod use before it was illegal is extremely disappointing, this bald faced lie is even more unforgivable.
I’m not sure Bush’s comment is reason for any additional ire though. I mean the guy demands and gives in return absolute loyalty to his friends and inner circle. He and Rafa are friends and, frankly, I’d be more disappointed in Bush if he now came out and was critical of him before all the facts were made clear (and they still haven’t been). There are plenty of reasons to despise Bush, but I’m not sure this qualifies on all counts.
Just curious as a point of reference… does anyone know what other team owners have said about their star players when accusations of steroid use have been made? I hesitate to say suspension for since this is one of the first. What did the Giants owner say about Bonds? The Cubs owner say about Sosa? The Yankees owner say about Giambi?
George gave a statement on Giambi early this year.
.“It takes a hell of a big man to stand up and apologize to his teammates, to New York Yankee fans, and to baseball fans everywhere, and admit he was wrong,” Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. After Giambi’s strange and surreal apology. http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/articles/2005/02/11/giambi_says_hes_sorry/
Pretty minimal for George. They looked into breaking his contract but there wasn’t anything to use in the Player agreement.
I’ve always liked Palmiero. Thought he was a class act. Didn’t grandstand or showboat. Didn’t act like a thug, get arrested, etc… Just did his job well day in and day out.
Now this. What a letdown. Especially after the whole Congressional testimony bit.
I note that Palmiero states that he did not “knowingly take a banned substance.” I see that people are focused on “knowingly” but what I’m thinking is that he was taking something he must have known that fell into a gray area. “Gee, I know that Steriod X is banned, but lookit this–the lab has come up with Juice Y that hasn’t hit the banned list yet. Gimme some of that…”
Then, Juice Y gats put on the list, or there is something in it he was not anticipating. Either way, I think he knew he was trying for chemical enhancement but figured he could get away with it.
I don’t really follow baseball, but I do read the paper and watch the news and such. When I heard him say he never intentionally ingested steroids, I could hear him saying…
Damn, now I have to reconsider my opinion of Selig as one of the great modern asshats. I can’t believe that the penalty for testing positive is a measly 10-day suspension; why not just wag your finger in his face?
Does anyone know if his return from suspension depends at all on a clean test, or whether he’ll be tested more often in the future?
Oh, Selig’s still an asshat. That the players’ union has pissed us all off by siding with the steroid users on this issue doesn’t make Selig a better man than he is. It just gives him a chance to be right twice a day in a place where the union’s all wrong.
IMHO, the players’ union should have the good sense to realize that by making life easier for supplement users, they make it harder for the rest of their membership to do well without taking performance-enhancing drugs. And that, over the period of a lifetime, it would serve its membership far better by helping to block its members from using such drugs.
What is this, like the 4th or 5th big name player to say he took steroids by accident? What a crock of shit. Wasn’t it Jason Giambi who said he was working out at Barry Bonds’ house one day, and barry gave him some cream and…holy toledo…it had steroids in it and he didn’t know it. How stupid do these assholes think we are?
And if you’re at Barry Bonds’ house, don’t you just assume that everything probably has steroids in it. The fucking tap water probably has anabolics in it.