Rafael Palmeiro fell off the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot five years ago. He’s essentially an outcast from Major League Baseball. The organizations where he put together the bulk of a stellar career, the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles, don’t seem interested in honoring him.
And Palmeiro is OK with that. He understands why. He’s the one who became baseball’s first superstar to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2005.
But not everyone in the baseball world is distancing themselves from Palmeiro. His alma mater, Mississippi State, unveiled a statue of Palmeiro’s “sweet swing” alongside his former teammate, Will Clark, at the recently remodeled Duly Noble Field at Polk-DeMent Stadium last month.