Baltimore Orioles History: Rafael Palmeiro Suspended for PEDs

Baltimore Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro was adamant that he never took PEDs during his playing career. Maybe he just forgot, as on this day in 2005, he became the highest profile player to be suspended under Major League Baseball’s drug policy.

Rafael Palmeiro appeared to be destined for the Hall of Fame. The Baltimore Orioles first baseman had the required milestones – 3000 hits and 500 home runs – that almost guaranteed enshrinement. Maybe he was not the most exciting player in his day, and was more of a compiler than an all time great, but it would be hard to argue against his overall body of work.

That is, until PED allegations began to creep in. Jose Canseco, Palmeiro’s teammate in Texas, stated that he was a steroid user in his tell-all book “Juiced.” That brought Palmeiro in front of a Congressional hearing about the matter, where he sat there, defiantly wagging his finger, and proclaimed that not only was he considering suing Canseco, but that he the allegations were “absolutely false.” The only performance enhancing drug that Palmeiro would even potentially admit to was Viagra, as he had been a spokesman for the supplement.

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What Palmeiro meant to say, in all likelihood, were that the allegations were absolutely true. On this day in 2005, not even five months after that infamous image, he was suspended for ten games after testing positive for the steroid Stanozol. Once again, he attempted to claim that he never knowingly took PEDs, this time blaming the positive test on a “Vitamin B-12” shot that he received from teammate Miguel Tejada.

Right…..as though Tejada was administering random vitamin injections into the buttocks of other Baltimore Orioles players in the bathroom. That sounds suspicious now, and was considered as such back then. Palmeiro would serve his ten game suspension, then sat out of the lineup until the 14th, which, incidentally, had been scheduled to be “Rafael Palmeiro Appreciation Day” in honor of his 3000 hits and 500 home runs. That is, until the positive test led to those plans being cancelled.

Palmeiro did not perform well afterwards. He was 0-5 in his first game back and was resoundingly booed by the Orioles faithful. It got to the point where, on September 1st, the team told him to just go away, sending him home and ending his career. Already off the Hall of Fame ballot despite his numbers, Palmeiro may have had the biggest fall from grace of a modern MLB player.

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Sometimes, the best choice, when confronted with various allegations, is to say nothing at all. Rafael Palmeiro learned that lesson on this day in 2005, when he was suspended for PED usage.