Rafael Palmeiro

Another wacky sidebar to the steroid scandal:  the Congressional hearings have made Rafael Palmeiro into an American hero, puzzling as that may be.  See this ESPN fan poll, asking which guys you would support as a HallofFame candidate--Palmeiro gets more support than anybody, more than McGwire, Bonds, or Sosa.

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/ballot?event_id=1250

Which to my mind means that his finger-pointing denial of ever having used steroids, in front of the Congressional committee, is getting far more credit than it deserves.  What?  Is that all these players have to do to clear their names?  Point their fingers at their accusers and say, "I have never used steroids!"  

No, such a denial only APPEARED to be heroic in contrast to Big Mac's evasive testimony.  And amidst the frustration with McGwire, I think most people WANTED to hear someone say "I didn't do it!" and WANTED TO BELIEVE THEM.  But let's get real.  Palmeiro's testimony, sitting next to McGwire's, might very well represent simply an alternate legal strategy.  

What's ironic is that before the hearings started, McGwire, Sosa & Bonds were Hall of Fame LOCKS, while Palmeiro sat very much on the fence.  Indeed, he was Exhibit A in statistical inflation in the Steroid Era.  In previous eras, 500 homers made you a Hall of Fame lock--but today, a guy like Palmeiro with only four all-star games to his credit is taking a shot at SIX hundred.  

And so as it becomes more and more clear that the era's mind-boggling power numbers are to some extent steroid-related, it is Palmeiro's Hall-of-Fame candidacy that could be in the greatest jeopardy.  Not because he seems the most guilty, but because in the absence of evidence of guilt or innocence in the vast majority of these cases, the whole era is indicted--and so it's the borderline power-hitters' candidacies who should take the fall.

In other words:  1) We'll never know for sure exactly who took steroids;  2) Even when we do know that a given player did, that player's guilt is shared by the league which had failed to prohibit them (much less test for them), and therefore the probable guilt of many of that player's peers; 3) Because of #1 & #2, the inflation in power numbers over the last 20 years should be taken into account as just that--inflation; and 4) Guys like Sosa, McGwire & Bonds had such amazing careers that even after you adjust for inflation, they're still Hall of Famers.  Not so for Palmeiro.

That's the way it ought to go down, and I think that a few years from now, that's the way it will go down.  Everyone's outraged at McGwire right now for his testimony, outraged at Bonds for being Bonds, and outraged at Sosa for his prima donna act with the Cubs last year.  But when that dies down, historical perspective will have its way.  

Still, how bizarre is this?:  Rafael Palmeiro's finger-pointing performance in front of a Congressional commmittee may have won him just enough fans to get him into the Hall of Fame.  Ultimately, he never would have been invited in front of that committee absent Jose Canseco's book, so if he does get in, he might want to thank Jose in his acceptance speech.