Three baseball milestones have traditionally guaranteed a player’s entry into the Hall of Fame. Smack more than 500 home runs, pile up more than 3,000 hits or win more than 300 games, and Cooperstown beckons.
Of the 203 players in the Hall, 56 have accomplished at least one of those three feats. Two others do not have plaques. One is Pete Rose, who has the most hits in the history of Major League Baseball, but is ineligible because of his lifetime ban for betting on games. The other is Mark McGwire, who briefly held the single-season home run mark, with 70, and hit 583 home runs in his career, but has drawn little support in his first four years on the ballot because of his links to performance--enhancing drugs.
Now comes a third candidate who is likely to find himself shunned by baseball writers when the results of the Hall balloting are announced on Wednesday, even though he has two of the three major milestones on his resume.
Over his 20-year career, Rafael Palmeiro hit 569 home runs and compiled 3,020 hits. Only three others — Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Eddie Murray — surpassed 500 home runs and 3,000 hits, and each was elected to the Hall the first time he was on the ballot.
However, standing in Palmeiro’s way in his first year of eligibility are that his numbers speak more to longevity than to dominance as a player and, more important, that his image suffered greatly in 2005, when he was suspended for a positive steroid test five months after pointing his finger at members of Congress and insisting he never used steroids.
Palmeiro’s dramatic gesture came during a nationally televised hearing, the same one in which McGwire did great damage to his Hall of Fame candidacy by continually declining to answer questions about steroid use. Palmeiro continues to maintain that his positive steroid test was an accident, a result of a tainted B12 vitamin shot given to him by Miguel Tejada, then his Baltimore Orioles teammate.
Palmeiro made only four All-Star teams in his career and never finished higher than fifth in balloting for the Most Valuable Player award in either league. He was also never a World Series winner. Palmeiro’s career line now reads: .288 batting average, 3,020 hits, 569 home runs, one drug suspension. The last number may have shut Cooperstown’s door.
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