Baseball’s steroid scandal ensnared its first potential Hall of Famer yesterday when slugger Rafael Palmeiro was suspended for testing positive – less than five months after he stared down a congressional committee, wagged his finger and said, “I have never used steroids. Period.”
The Baltimore Orioles star and Viagra pitchman will sit out 10 days, the standard punishment for a first violation of Major League Baseball’s steroid policy. Palmeiro – who joined an exclusive club this year along with Hank Aaron, Eddie Murray and Willie Mays after notching up 500 home runs and 3,000 hits – will lose more than $160,000 of his $3 million-a-year salary.
Despite the positive test result, Palmeiro remained defiant yesterday. “I am here to make it very clear that I have never intentionally used steroids. Never, ever. Period,” Palmeiro, 40, said in a statement.
Major League Baseball refused to say when Palmeiro tested positive or when he was told of the suspension. Baseball players are randomly tested at least once per season, and this year’s testing began March 3.
Palmeiro said he had appealed the suspension, but an independent arbitrator shot it down. He started serving the suspension last night.
He is the 10th player suspended under the league’s policy – but the highest-profile slugger by far.
Palmeiro hinted that he may have unwittingly used some sort of supplement or substance which led to the positive test, but said he challenged the suspension because “I never intentionally used a banned substance, but I unfortunately wasn’t careful enough.”
“I am sure you will ask how I tested positive for a banned substance,” Palmeiro added. “I don’t have a specific answer to give. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to explain to the arbitrator how the banned substance entered my body.
“When I testified in front of Congress, I know that I was testifying under oath and I told the truth,” he said.
Palmeiro said the timing of the positive test itself was evidence that he didn’t know there were banned steroids in anything he was taking.
“Why would I do this in a year when I went in front of Congress?” he said. “Why would I do this during a season where I was going to get to 3,000 hits? I would not put my reputation on the line.”
His denial echoes comments by other high-profile ballplayers who are alleged to have used steroids.
Single-season home-run champ Barry Bonds reportedly told a federal grand jury that he used a “clear” substance and a “cream” substance from a scandal-tainted lab to help him gain muscle mass – but was told they weren’t steroids.
The grand jury was investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, a lab that is accused of providing steroids to many players – including Yankee slugger Jason Giambi, who reportedly admitted to the grand jury that he took steroids from 2001 through 2004.
Yankee star Gary Sheffield has also admitted to once using “cream” and “clear” from BALCO in 2002, but also said he was told it did not contain steroids.
The lab’s founder, Vincent Conte, its vice-president and Bonds’ personal trainer have all pleaded guilty in the case.
Palmeiro’s positive steroid test – and denial – offered an only-in-Washington reminder of former President Bill Clinton’s famous, finger-wagging denial of his affair with Monica Lewinsky: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
On March 17, Palmeiro pointed his finger at members of the House Committee on Government Reform and said, “I have never used steroids. Period. I do not know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never.”
Palmeiro was equally indignant over accusations made by former slugger, former teammate and unrepentant steroid advocate, Jose Canseco, who wrote in his tell-all book that he personally injected Palmeiro with the performance-enhancing hormones.
Palmeiro’s denials were so convincing, that he was asked to join a steroids-in-sports task force, which has discussed the issue several times this seasons.
Committee Chairman Tom Davis (RVa.), was out of the country yesterday, but a spokesman said, “If true, this is disheartening news for those of us who believed Mr. Palmeiro was a key ally in our effort to rid sports of performanceenhancing drugs.”
The spokesman, Rob White, added that it was “premature to talk about” holding Palmeiro in contempt of Congress.
Steroid use in professional sports has been an open secret for years.
Canseco’s book, “Juiced,” which was published on the eve of the Congressional hearings, said that some of the
game’s brightest stars, including Palmeiro as well as home-run kings Mark McGwire and Bonds, were doping.
The taint on America’s pastime even encouraged President Bush, a former owner of the Texas Rangers when Canseco and Palmeiro were teammates, to condemn steroid use in his State of the Union speech in 2004.
Yesterday, the president stood by a man he called “a friend.”
“He’s testified in public, and I believe him,” the president said.
Orioles owner Peter Angelos also believes in Palmeiro: “I know from personal experience that his accomplishments are due to hard work and his dedication to the game.”
Palmeiro echoed that sentiment in making a thinly veiled attempt to save his Hall of Fame-worthy career from being sullied by the test.
“I hope that people look at my whole career,” he said in the statement. “I respect the game. I respect my opponents. I respect the players that came before me.”
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* To Congress, March 18: ‘I have never used steroids. Period.’
* To reporters, yesterday: ‘I am here to make it very clear that I have never intentionally used steroids. Never, ever. Period.’
* ‘I personally injected [Palmeiro] many times, until [he] became more familiar with how to use a needle.’ – Jose Canseco on Palmeiro’s steroid use, from the book, “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big”