Athletes - Rafael Palmeiro

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	Athletes - Rafael Palmeiro

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Rafael Palmeiro Corrales (born September 24, 1964 in Havana, Cuba) is a Major League Baseball player, with a career spanning almost 20 years. He had an All-American career at Mississippi State University, before Palmeiro went on to debuted September 8, 1986 with the Chicago Cubs. He played with the Cubs through 1988. He went on to have two stints with the Texas Rangers (1989-1993 and 1999-2003). He has also had two stints with the Baltimore Orioles (1994-1998 and 2004-2005).

Career

Palmeiro was a four-time All-Star and a three-time Gold Glove Award winner.

Palmeiro, a First Baseman, became the 19th player (and the second Hispanic, after Sammy Sosa) to reach the 500 career home run plateau. He became the first player in history to have led his league in singles in a season, and hit 500 home runs in his career. He joined the 500 home run club on May 11 2003 on a full-count pitch from Cleveland right-hander David Elder. On July 15, 2005, Palmeiro struck his 3,000th career hit (a double) off Joel Pineiro of the Seattle Mariners. Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Eddie Murray, and Palmeiro, are the only players to hit 500 home runs and 3,000 hits. Palmeiro's home run hitting stride didn't really appear until the age of 30, when he began a streak of hitting 30-plus home runs and batting in 100-plus runs for nine seasons in a row (1995-2003). Palmeiro was among the league leaders in batting average, doubles, and slugging percentage from 1988 to 1993, before he turned thirty years of age. He holds the distinction of playing in the most Major League Baseball games (2,831 through 2005) without ever reaching the World Series, and Palmeiro also holds the distinction of being number 9 on the all time home run leaders list with 569 (through 2005). He is also the third leading home run hitter among active players, behind former teammate Sammy Sosa and San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds. Palmeiro also has 3,020 career hits through 2005, making him only the fourth major leaguer (after Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Eddie Murray) with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs in a career.

During the 2005 season, Palmeiro became the highest-profile player to test positive for steriod use. After this the Orioles announced they would not re-sign Palmeiro. He filed for free agency on October 29, 2005, indicating he will attempt to play his 20th season in baseball.

Steroids

Former Rangers teammate José Canseco identified Palmeiro as a fellow steroid user in his 2005 book, Juiced, and claimed he personally injected Palmeiro with steroids. On March 17, 2005, Palmeiro appeared at a Congressional hearing on the subject of steroids in baseball and vehemently denied ever using steroids under oath, wagging his finger and stating:

:"Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids, period."

On August 1, 2005, Palmeiro was suspended for 10 days after testing positive for steroids. In a public statement, Palmeiro disclosed that an appeal of the suspension has already been denied. At the same time, he stated:

:"I have never intentionally used steroids. Never. Ever. Period. Ultimately, although I never intentionally put a banned substance into my body, the independent arbitrator ruled that I had to be suspended under the terms of the program."

Both the Washington Post and New York Daily News reported that the steroid detected in Palmeiro's system was a "serious" one. The New York Times later reported that Palmeiro had tested positive for the potent anabolic steroid stanozolol, the same substance Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson of Canada took in 1988 when he was stripped of the gold medal at the Seoul Summer Olympics. . Palmeiro returned to Camden Yards following his 10-day suspension on August 11, 2005, although he did not play in the lineup until August 14, which coincidentally was the date that had been planned as "Rafael Palmeiro Appreciation Day" in celebration of his 500-home run, 3,000-hit milestone, only to be canceled after the positive test results were discovered.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Rafael Palmeiro ]

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Athletes - Rafael Palmeiro

Career

Steroids

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