When Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Curt Schilling and Rafael Palmeiro were called in front of Congress earlier this year to testify on the proliferation of steroids in baseball, McGwire severly damaged his reputation by refusing to answer questions on whether or not he used steroids during his career. Palmeiro, meanwhile, came away looking cleaner than ever after he stared directly at the cameras and said, “I have never used steroids.” We believed him. After all, the only reason he was there was because his name showed up in Canseco’s new book, and we all know how reliable a source Jose is. With all the steroid talk seemingly in his rearview mirror, Raffy became just the fourth player in baseball history to total 3,000 hits and 500 home runs this season, numbers that virtually guarantee him a place in Cooperstown.
Monday afternoon, though, Major League Baseball announced that Palmeiro was suspended 10 games for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs. Suddenly, Raffy doesn’t look any more innocent than McGwire did in front of Congress. Actually, while McGwire simply refused to answer most of the questions being lobbed his way, Palmeiro seemingly lied to baseball fans and to Congress, which I believe is a pretty big no-no.
In a statement, Palmeiro said: “I am here to make it very clear that I have never intentionally used steroids. Never. Ever. Period.” Dude, I believed you before, but not this time.
