Well, it couldn't have come at a worse time in many regards. After becoming the fourth guy to hit 500 homeruns and collect 3000 hits, Rafael Palmeiro has been found to be in breach of the MLB drug policy and will serve a 10 game ban. Of course everyone is asking if this will harm his Hall of Fame chances or even if this means Canseco was right and he's been juiced his whole career?
I have always been inclined to assume the best and think that maybe Palmeiro might have just taken the wrong cough medicine or something and this is just a mistake. The reason you have a three strike policy is to cover such eventuallities.
The really big question is what will Congress do? Unlike many of those fingered by Canseco, Palmeiro didn't take the fifth and stated quite clearly that he did not do drugs and in light of his recent failed test, Congress have begun investigating potential perjury charges and if they can prove that he actually took steroids before (I find the chances of them proving such a thing remote to say the least) then it really won't look good.
Of course we wouldn't need to be double guessing all this if MLB had instituted a drug policy sooner but as it stands I can still see Palmeiro making The Hall, albeit under a dark cloud. He's had a great career and there is some ambiguity as to any long term steroid use and a lot of writers seem to be able to look past such transgressions with certain players. Personally, I'm still bitter that Palmeiro stole a Gold Glove from David Segui and that Joe Carter was well and truly snubbed by The Hall so no one should ever be allowed in until that is sorted (I can be so petty sometimes).
We shall see what happens.
No comments:
Post a Comment