Some of the points you make are very valid, expecially his consistency through the years.
He also never showed any of the tell tale signs of roid usage – popeye arms, acne, nagging injuries, etc.

What ELSE is he gonna say? “Yup, I lied to Congress, I did it, you got me.”

Of course he’s not gonna say that.

Raffy juiced, got caught, and thinks he can lie his way out of it. Case closed.

Otherwise you have to exclude all of the best players from this generation (Bonds – the best player ever, Clemens – one of the best RHP ever if not the best, Manny – one of the best RHHs of all time, Palmeiro – member of the tiny 3,000/500 club), and who knows whether the people who’ve never tested positive or haven’t been mentioned as steroid users are actually clean? Unless there’s some way to be 100% sure who used and who didn’t I think you have to just go based on performance and Raffy earned it with performance.

pretty much adds up to “I believe Raffy because I want to believe Raffy.” If it had been Tejada who came out and said “Oh, well, I had this B-12, and I got all my needles mixed up one time… etc” That might be worth something.

…about anything. I want to believe Raffy played clean and that the 97 Orioles weren’t a great chemistry experiment, but I want to believe in a lot of things. The dude cheated and is trying to hold on to some tainted B-12 excuse so that people believe in him still. Maybe he thinks interviews like this improve his HOF chances. Regardless, I just don’t believe it.

In the 90s. Everyone who did it is pretty much guilty in my mind, other than a few players I don’t want to believe like Griffey and Chipper Jones.

We all realize that not every steroid makes you look huge. Look at A-Rod for example. But Palmeiro put up solid numbers ever since his first stint in Texas. He never had huge, gaudy numbers like A-Rod, McGwire, or Sosa. As Raffy said, he was extremely consistent. I too believe him. Not because, “you’re gonna believe what you want to believe”, but because he seems sincerely genuine.

Palmeiro never failed a drug test before that, nor again after he was suspended. Is Raffy guilty of being “reckless”, if that’s the right word? I think everyone would agree, yes. You should know what is being put inside your own body, and definitely not allow someone else to inject you with “vitamins”. So yeah, that part was his fault. But I truly think he’s telling the truth.

Now, there’s two sides to this story- Larry Bigbie was quoted as saying that when Palmeiro found out about Bigbie’s usage of steroids, he confronted him. Bigbie said that Raffy asked him how they made Bigbie feel, and told him that Palmeiro himself had never taken steroids before. Bigbie and Palmeiro were teammates only for 2004-2005. That should prove that Palmeiro never took them before, if he privately (or so he thought) asked a known roid user what they felt like and even told him that he hadn’t taken them before. I think a previous steroid user would know how they made him feel. Raffy didn’t.

The flip-side to that story is that he did ask Bigbie about them, which implies a curiosity there. Is it possible that Raffy was trying to find a source? Yes. But is it also possible that he was just asking Bigbie what they were like- just as a kid will ask his dad what beer is like, or his high school buddie what weed is like? Yes, that’s possible too.

Me personally, based on the consistency spread over 20 years, no signs of usage, passing drug tests his entire career except for 1 over an incident, and him not knowing what they were like… plus his honest reputation and seemingly sincere defense… I believe him too.

Rodriguez did fail a drug test. It just wasn’t released to the public until this year. Bonds was pretty much the trailblazer in WHY baseball has drug tests. McGwire and Sosa both didn’t even want to talk about it in court (McGwire didn’t want to talk about the past, and Sosa wasn’t comfortable enough with his English to talk about it.) What do each of these guys have in common? All put up monster numbers, monster-sized bodies and side effects (of course Bonds, but remember Sosa taking a bat to the clubhouse stereo cause they didn’t play the music he wanted?… roid rage), and all 3 have more than sufficient evidence that they used steroids.

Rafael Palmeiro has none of that. Why isn’t everyone jumping all over Brian Roberts? He took steroids “once or twice” in 2003. He was caught once, and so was Palmeiro. Granted, Roberts admitted that he did. Palmeiro vehemently denies doing so intentionally. But because Raffy was a power hitter in the clean up spot, and Roberts is a doubles machine batting lead-off- and because Roberts admitted his guilt and Palmeiro has denied it- we can all forgive and forget with Roberts and not with Palmeiro? I’m not saying hold a grudge against Roberts. Not at all; he’s one of my favorites and he admitted his mistake. What I’m saying is, if we can move on and forgive Roberts, why can’t we believe Palmeiro when both players had steroid allegations just one time in their careers?

I still believe Palmeiro didn’t intentionally juice up. Especially at the age of 40 and 41. Why would he?

Among baseball players B12 is a code word for roids. It’s possible that Raffy wasn’t up on his lingo when Tejada gave him B12 but I don’t buy it for a second.

I still think he is to blame. It’s a business, as the players always tell us at contract time. So they are the managers of a multi-million dollar line of the business. That line is their body and mind and what they do with both on the field. If Raffy’s story is true, he didn’t manage the supply chain for his line of business, in an environment where everyone knew a lot of the supplies around the room were tainted. He is still responsible for that.

Personally, my gut says his story can’t be true and he was a willful cheater, not just a careless cheater. But nobody’s gut feelings for or against him matter.

I truly do love, in any sport, the line of BS that athletes try to sell us. “It was my cousin who did it!” “It was Tejada who did it!” “I didn’t know what I was taking!”

You’re paid millions upon millions of dollars to play a game or fight twice a year or whatever. You know what’s going in your body. I’m not your mom, you’re not 7, and the lid isn’t off the cookie jar.

As for Palmeiro, well… if it moos and grazes and fails a drug test, it’s probably a cow on steroids, but I’m not saying I’m positive or wouldn’t be like “oh, awesome!” if he could somehow prove his innocence. Sadly all he has is throwing Miguel Tejada under a bus, getting forced to go home early from his final season of baseball because he was such a distraction and acted like a drama queen putting earplugs in on the on-deck circle (I mean come on), and, you know, a failed drug test.

We’re just fans, and as far as we know, he did something immoral (in my opinion) and illegal.

I loved Raffy as a player, but publicly lying to the legislature shouldn’t warrant a birth to the highest honor in baseball.

What’s difference between steroids and lasik (other than their legality)? Both are performing enhancing *. But yet the public is scornful towards roids but not lasik.

• There is no hard evidence for either enhances one ability to hit a baseball but it least makes some common sense. Lasik improves your eyesight thus allowing you see the ball better while roids improves your muscle strength thus allowing you hit the ball further.

 http://www.slate.com/id/2222246/