Monday, Monday

Can't trust that day...

"I have never used steroids. Period." Rafael Palmeiro to the House Committee on Reform in the steroid hearings prior to the season...

"I am sure you will ask how I tested positive for a banned substance. As I look back, 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." Palmeiro today after being suspended for 10 games for testing positive for steroids.

Here's the question on everybody's mind, does this affect his Hall of Fame chances (which are of huge debate for talking heads) aversely? The answer is yes. For all of those people who didn't want to give Raffy a chance to enter the Hall prior to this episode, this will definitely be the fodder for an even larger campaign against the fourth member of the 3,000 hit, 500 home run club. Steroids will affect his chances more than Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, even Jason Giambi (assuming he gets to that point) because he tested positive, and it should.

Palmeiro cheated, bottom line. Although the debate will rage on as to whether or not steroids can actually improve ability in baseball, he cheated. Everything he has stood for in the game and said is no longer valid because he tested positive. During his discussions with the House in March, he was quite defiant and even bullish in his staunch denial of ever having used an illegal substance. Now, after testing positive he says he doesn't know how it ever happened and that he hopes he can be a teacher to younger players in the league and they will see what happened to him and not put anything in their bodies which isn't prescribed by a doctor. I'm going to use my least favorite word here but, DUH! How stupid do you have to be at this point to still use something which hasn't been prescribed by a doctor. Players doing this now is like coaches partying with players after Larry Eustachy got busted for it.

No matter what happens from here on out in Rafael's career, nothing's going to matter, he will always be the guy who tested positive for steroids. He won't be the guy who has been in the league for 19 seasons, has averaged over 30 home runs and 100 RBI per season, has played in less than 152 games in a season only 4 times (two of those were his first two years in the league, and one was when he played in 143 games, and of course is only the fourth member of the ultra exclusive 500 home run, 3,000 hit club, and may end up with over 600 home runs, he'll be the guy who tested positive for steroids, and that's how it should be. You can't expect to make such a big mistake and have it just disappear, especially when talking about joining a group which includes Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Eddie Murray. Nothing he will ever do or say will take away from the fact that he cheated and got caught and it's a shame he let all of his fans down.


Speaking of steroids, the biggest accused user, Barry Bonds, announced today that he would likely not return at all for the 2005 season and may not return for the entire 2006 season, read on. Doesn't everyone in the world know that it would be best for him to go the the AL and become a designated hitter? How long is it going to take for him to figure this out. The guy will never play every day again. If he doesn't go to the AL, Hank's record is safe for sure.


Finally, it was quite a joy watching Ryne Sandberg get inducted into the Hall of Fame yesterday. I have to say that other than my grandpa's fondness for the team and the old beat up blue hat with the red 'C' I always saw on a hook in the stairwell leading to the basement, Ryno was the player who got me hooked on the Cubs more than any other. One of my first memories of a baseball game was Sandberg batting with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th against the Giants, down 1 run in my first visit to Wrigley on my dad's 40th birthday, and he struck out. Thing is, I wasn't disappointed, he still had a great game and I always loved him as a player. His speech moved me quite a bit, in fact I think some dust from my parking lot was blown up and into my apartment yesterday towards the end of the speech because, it got a little misty in here.

The part of Sandberg's speech which I found the best, however was when he basically called out all of the pose-striking, two hoping, me first players who are out there. He never played the game for himself, only for his team, the city, and the fans, nothing else. It is a shame to see players these days lose focus of why they first started playing the game, which is something Sandberg never did, and we all appreciated him for that. Cubs fan or not, you have to at least respect the way he played, always at an All-Star level and always with all the ego of a batboy.

Like I said, one of my first baseball memories was seeing Ryno strikeout against the Giants in 1989, but 16 years later, one of my favorite baseball memories will be seeing his number get retired August 28th against the Marlins when I am sitting with the rest of the bleacher bums in right field cheering louder than I ever have before. He struck out to end a game the first time I saw him, but has always been a grand slam in my book.

-Until next time...