He vanished years ago from the public spotlight, and today, is forgotten by baseball.
Once destined for the Hall of Fame, he now is considered an outcast in the industry, a pariah to baseball purists.
Rafael Palmeiro was the first baseball superstar to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
Now, as he watches a softening sentiment toward players tied to or suspected of PED use, Palmeiro is on the outside looking in.
“It bothers me,’’ Palmeiro told USA TODAY Sports. “It bothers me to say that I’m not in the Hall of Fame. Obviously, it would be so cool. My numbers dictated it.
“I try not to think about it, but I can’t help it this time of year when they have the election. And in July during the induction ceremony. Those are the only two times I really think about it.
“I thought as long as I was on that ballot, there was hope, a chance that something might change.’’
Hope ended three years ago.
Palmeiro, only the fourth player in major league history to produce at least 500 homers and 3,000 hits, slipped off the Hall of Fame ballot after the 2014 election when his voting percentage dropped to just 4.4%. He needed at least 5% to remain.
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If Palmeiro were on the ballot today, maybe he’d be catching the tidal wave of forgiveness by a younger voting bloc among 10-year members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who haven’t exceeded 44% in their first four years on the ballot, are hovering just above 60%, according to exit polling conducted by Ryan Thibodeaux.
And Jeff Bagwell and Pudge Rodriguez, whose careers were clouded by steroid suspicions, each could be Hall of Famers by the end of Wednesday, with the election results scheduled for 6 p.m. ET on MLB-TV.
Bagwell, in his seventh year on the ballot, is projected to receive more than 85% of the votes, joining Tim Raines, who’s hovering around 90%. Rodriguez is on the bubble, listed on 78% of the ballots, according to Thibodeaux’s survey.
Bagwell has admitted to using androstenedione, now on MLB’s banned list. Rodriguez’s former teammate, Jose Canseco, alleged in a 2005 book that Rodriguez used steroids. Rodriguez also lost 30 pounds before the 2005 season, when MLB began testing with penalties and Palmeiro tested positive. When asked whether he ever used steroids, Rodriguez has said, “Only God knows.’’
Yet, despite career numbers that favorably compare to Hall of Famers Eddie Murray and Dave Winfield – 569 homers with 1,835 RBI, 3,020 hits and a .885 OPS – Palmeiro must wait at least until December 2020, before his next Hall of Fame opportunity. This is when he’d first become eligible for the Hall of Fame “Today’s Game” committee ballot.
“People were saying at the end of my career, once I got 500 homers and 3,000 hits,’’ Palmeiro said, “I would be a first ballot Hall of Famer. But it is what it is. I try not to think about it too much because it hurts.
“I wish something would change. I wish it were different. There’s nothing I can do now.’’
Palmeiro, 52, blames himself for this mess. He’s the one who tested positive for stanozolol in 2005, saying his B-12 shot was contaminated. Worse yet, the suspension came less than six months after Palmeiro’s adamant denial before Congress that he used performance-enhancing drugs.
He appealed the test, and even personally reached out to former president George W. Bush and then-commissioner Bud Selig, but the appeal was denied. He was suspended 10 games, and his career quietly faded into obscurity two months after his Aug. 1, 2005, suspension.
“I was never the best,’’ said Palmeiro, who joined Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Murray in the 500-homer/3,000-hit club. (Alex Rodriguez later made it.) “But I was consistently good. I never considered myself the best of my era. The best was Bonds and Clemens. When you talk about Bonds and Clemens, come on, they were two of the best of all time.
“But I was able to accumulate career numbers that could stack up with a lot of great players in this game. I just made a careless mistake. It never should have happened.’’
Bonds and Clemens never tested positive, but Bonds was ensnared in the federal steroid investigation that shut down BALCO. Clemens was accused of steroid use by his former trainer, whose accusations appeared in the Mitchell Report. They were each acquitted in federal court of lying under oath about PED use, and neither were suspended or ever tested positive for steroid use.
Manny Ramirez is actually the only player on the current Hall of Fame ballot who tested positive for PEDs – twice suspended for a total of 150 games; he’s receiving 23.6% of the vote, according to Thibodeaux. He and Palmeiro are the only players to ever publicly test positive on the Hall of Fame ballot. Mark McGwire, who no longer is eligible, is the lone player to ever appear on a Hall of Fame ballot who publicly admitted to steroid use.
But, oh, how there are plenty of others on the ballot who have been suspected, but never caught, over the years.
“I disagree with the idea that just because there are suspicions,’’ Palmeiro says, “you hold it against them. That’s not right. If there’s no solid evidence, how can you hold it against them? With me, for instance, there was a positive test. But there wasn’t a positive test for Bagwell. Or Pudge. Or Mike Piazza.
“Pudge was the best catcher of my era, and just because people suspect something, doesn’t mean it’s true. I really hope he gets in.’’
It’s a painful time for Palmeiro. He stays away from the TV and the phone on election day. He normally doesn’t watch the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. This time, he might be making an exception.
“Pudge is like a brother to me,’’ says Palmeiro, Rodriguez’s teammate for three years in Texas. “He’s the best catcher I ever saw, played against, or played with. He had such great ability, played with so much enthusiasm, and had so much love for the game. What drove him was that he not only wanted to be the best in the game, but the best of all time.’’
If Rodriguez is elected, a part of Palmeiro will feel as if he’s going into the Hall of Fame with him. Palmeiro plans to be in Cooperstown, N.Y., at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony celebrating Rodriguez’s career, he vows, only awaiting a formal invitation.
Who knows, maybe one day, Palmeiro will even be a Hall of Fame teammate. If Bonds and Clemens get in one day, and if Ramirez is elected despite his two suspensions, the Cooperstown door could swing open for Palmeiro.
“I would love that, but we’ll see,’’ Palmeiro says. “My opinion is that everyone should be judged by what they did on the field, and in the community. I think the voters really wanted to send a message when guys first came on the ballot, but now their stance is a little softer. My hope is they all eventually get in.
“As things change in our sport, and time changes the way we view things, hopefully the veterans committee looks at my career, the whole works, and not just that one unfortunate incident.
“That’s my dream.’’
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