At now more than 3000 hits, and better than 500 home runs, and at 1834 RBI's, Rafael Palmiero should without a doubt, under ordinary circumstances, be considered a shoe-in for induction into the Baseball Hall Of Fame on the first ballot, upon his first year of eligibility. But such is the world that we live in, that some consider him a serious possibility for induction-maybe-on the second or third ballot. Not necessarilly in his first year of eligibility, mind you.
What has dimmed his chances might not so much be the testing at which steroids showed up in his system, for which he has been suspended for ten games, as much as his recent testamony before a Senate Sub-Committee during which he claimed to have never used steroids. He may not have committed perjury in a way that is provable. But he certainly lied.
And his insistance that he was unaware of ever having used steroids, which he seems to have taken from the Barry Bonds playbook of plausible deniability, may indeed have only made the lie more blatant-and obvious.
But Palmiero has two unlikely defenders. For one, George W. Bush, who strangely made a call for a crackdown on steroid use by athletes in professional sports a centerpiece of his 2004 State Of The Union address, but yet now insists that Palmiero (who used to play for the Texas Rangers when Bush was the owner of the team) is "a friend" and believes he is truthful in his assertions of innocence.
The other defender is even stranger, on the surface, when you consider that Jose' Conseco, author of the tell-all book Juiced, which deals precisely with the subject, in that book listed Palmiero, among others, as a player of whose steroid use Conseco had personal knowledge.
Now, however, Conseco claims that Palmiero's recent positive test results may be due to the preence of chemical elements in his bloodstream that are an outgrowth of past steroid use. In other words, Palmiero's test results might indeed be a false positive. His assertion-more testing needs to be done in order to determine the difference, and just how long these elements remain in the bloodstream past the last time of steroid use.
This may not be so much of a strange defense on Conseco's part, as he points to potential proof of Palmiero's perjury, while pretending to take the high road by defending Pamiero after being slammed by him.
The real story to all this, however, is how incideous this whole process has become in it's effect on all level of sports, amateur and professional, including school sports. Our performance driven and record breaking obsessive society has produced a glut of child would be star athletes, their aggresive and self promoting parents who push them to suceed whatever the cost, and coaches whose careers are so dependant on establishing and maintaining winning records. There was even a recent case where a coach encouraged the injury and incapacitation of a below par child athlete who was dragging down the team-in T-Ball.
You constantly see assaults involving parents, students, coaches, umpires, referees. At times this can result in an all-out brawl. Serious injuries are more commonplace than might be expected. And at times, death has ensued. Sometimes due to violence. Other times, due to overextended, gruelling training and practices. And, yes, due to the effects of steroids. On at least one occassion, suicide has resulted.
And all for what? To win that big contract. Secure in the knowledge that, for a time at least, and focusing here specifically again on baseball, both the Major Leaque Owners Association, and The Union Players Association, shook hands and, with a nod and a wink, issued meaningless declarations, instituted a number of insipid, ineffective rules and "reforms"-and looked the other way. After all, home run contests were drawing fans back into the park, and more records were being set, and broken, however dubiously.
And, though beaseball seems on the surface to be the worse offender in this matter, it is far from being alone. And, like the cancer that it really is, it has trickled down-or up-from the highest levels of sports into all levels of it. Just one more tumor in the national body that is sick witht he cancer of sucess at all costs. Not only in sports, but in all else.
Healthy competition is good. It is natural, and to be encouraged. But, like all else, when it becomes cancerous, it soon metastisizes, and spreads outward, and inward, until a drastic cure-if by now possible-becomes the only recourse.
But has it really gotten that far out of hand? Well, to recap, Rafael Palmiero has been suspended for ten games. The pay that he will forfeit for that brief period of time-200,000 dollars.
