After his retirement, Rafael Palmeiro now enjoys watching his son plays for the McKinney Marshals in Texas Collegiate League. An eligible Hall of Famer, Palmeiro’s career however was tainted with steroids. He was one of the several baseball players called to testify in Congress investigating the rampant use of steroids. He vehemently denied that he used anabolic steroids in front of the investigators but a few months later he tested positive for steroids.

With 20 playing years in the league, Palmeiro have 569 home runs and 3,020 hits. Performance that can put him in the Hall of Fame. But in August 2005, the major league suspended him for 10 games for having a positive test result for stanozolol. “I’d hope voters would look at my body of work over my career and maybe put more emphasis on that,” Palmeiro told Drew Davison of the Dallas News in a recent interview. “That one steroid incident is unfortunately all people remember. They don’t remember the other 19 years that I played the game the right way,” Palmeiro said.

Palmeiro still maintains his stand that he never intentionally took any performance enhancing drugs. He still blames the vitamin B12 supplement he purchased from the Dominican Republic. “It was an accidental, unintentional deal on my part, and I take full responsibility for that. I did not do the proper due diligence on it, and if I pay the price, I pay the price,” he said.

He appealed his positive test but he was not successful in preventing the implementation of the 10-game suspension. He was also re investigated by the congressional committee for possible perjury charges. He was lucky that the investigators can’t find any evidences that will prove he used anabolic steroids before his testimony. Palmeiro told the Dallas News that he did not regret what he did in Congress. He said that he told them the truth and they did not find proof even if they conducted a thorough investigation.

Palmeiro told Davison that he still cares about how he is perceived in the baseball world. His use of stanozolol could be big factor in the voting for the HOF. But he is not bothered if baseball writers will put more weight on his steroid use instead of his exemplary performance in the field. Mark McGwire, who was also involved in the use of anabolic steroids have been always in the bottom of the balloting. A player should at least received 75 percent of the votes to be inducted in the HOF.

“What I did in the game, no one can take that away from me. They can’t take 3,000 hits away. They can’t take 500 home runs away. They can’t take what I gave to the game away. If they want to take the Hall of Fame away, I’ll accept that,” Palmeiro said. “I can honestly say I can live with that. It’s not up for me to say. Is it fair? I don’t know if it’s fair or not,” he added.

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