T.R.’s Memoirs: Another chance at Hall for Rafael Palmeiro. He has the stats, but …
(AP photo/LM Otero)
Editor’s note: T.R. Sullivan covered the Texas Rangers over 32 years for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and MLB.com and is sharing his “memoirs” with this newsletter. In this latest installment, Sullivan prepares us for Sunday’s meeting when the Veteran’s Committee considers former Rangers star Rafael Palmeiro for the Hall of Fame.
Rafael Palmeiro has the baseball resume that deserves enshrinement in the Hall of Fame.
To sum it up quickly, Palmeiro finished his career with 3,020 hits and 569 home runs. Only six other players had both 500 home runs and 3,000 hits in their careers: Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Eddie Murray, Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez.
Mays, Aaron and Murray are in the Hall of Fame. Cabrera and Pujols played in 2022. Rodriguez is …
In the same situation as Palmeiro.
Both have been denied entry into the Hall of Fame because of their alleged use of steroids and/or other performance enhancing drugs.
Rodriguez admitted using steroids with the Rangers in 2001-03 u he cited the pressure of having to live up to his $252 million contract — and then got busted again late in his career when caught up in the Biogenesis scandal. Rodriguez, accused of receiving HGH from the South Florida anti-aging clinic, was suspended for the 2014 season.
He was on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in 2022 and was named on 34.3 percent of the votes cast. That was far from enough. Billy Wagner gets 34 percent. So do Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent.
A player needs at least 75 percent to be inducted. It’s highly doubtful Rodriguez will do much better when the 2023 results are announced in January.
It’s just they’re too many voters who are quite unforgiving when it comes to steroid use.
Palmeiro knows that quite well.
He was on the Hall of Fame ballot for four years, never getting more than 12.6 percent of the votes cast. A player needs to get at least five percent to stay on the ballot and. Palmeiro dropped off after getting 4.4 percent in 2014. He has been left hanging ever since.
His next chance comes Sunday at the Winter Meetings in San Diego. Palmeiro is among eight players who will be considered by the latest “Veterans Committee.” This one is known as the Contemporary Baseball Era committee.
