I will be completely honest here, Rafael Palmeiro broke my
heart. Why you may ask? Well I have like four-or-five of his rookie cards in
mint condition that I was planning on cashing in once he made it to the Hall of
Fame, but after an inclusion in the Mitchell Report and a failed test for
steroids before the end of his playing days the value of his cards plummeted.
Palmeiro will likely never make it into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New
York and I will likely never strike it rich off his Topps Tiffany playing
cards, but that won’t stop Palmeiro from fighting back against his alleged use
of performance-enhancing drugs. In fact, Palmeiro is taking his fight against
steroids so far that at the ripe age of 53-years old he is making a return to
professional baseball.
After spending much of his MLB career with the Texas Rangers
and the Baltimore Orioles the former MLB first baseman is now headed to the
Cleburne Railroaders of the American Association of Independent Professional
Baseball. Rafael will also be joined by his son, 28-year old Patrick Palmeiro,
on the Railroaders.
Palmeiro let it be known this winter that he would like to
return to Major League Baseball and even went as far as to claim that he could
still contribute at the Major League level. Palmeiro asked for an invitation to
spring training to prove that and to win a job outright this spring, but no
teams were willing to extend the invite leading Palmeiro to play for Cleburne
to try and prove that he still has it. Palmeiro also wants to prove that he
still has it, and has always had it, without the boost that performance
enhancing drugs can give.
Palmeiro was quoted as saying to The Athletic in December:
"Maybe 12 years later, if I can come back and prove I
don’t need anything as an older player with an older body, then people might
think, OK, maybe he didn’t do anything intentionally."
That sounds great, now it’s time to prove it. Good luck.
