Rafael Palmeiro

Thank you very much for joining me on this call today. I am saddened that we are here to address this issue, but because of the importance of it, I feel the need to make a brief statement and address your questions. At the outset, let me say that under the rules of the basic agreement and the order of the independent arbitrator, there is an order of confidentiality governing the specifics of this case. I will attempt to state as much as I can and be as forthright as possible, but there will be issues I can't address based on orders imposed on me by the basic agreement and the arbitration process.

The person who perhaps could be helped or hurt most if the National Baseball Hall of Fame offered specific instruction to its voters on whether candidates with a history of using performance-enhancing drugs should be enshrined has his own opinion as to what should happen. Leave it up to the qualifying members of the Baseball Writers Association of America to make their own decision, former Orioles great Rafael Palmeiro says. The Hall of Fame doesn't need to offer any advice beyond what it already suggests about character and integrity, he believes.

THREE DAYS after Rafael Palmeiro's somewhat contrite voice hit the national airwaves, Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan H. "Bud" Selig issued a statement. He wanted the public to know that all eight of this year's steroid suspensions, including Palmeiro's, show that the league's policy is working. But he also took the opportunity to again plug his proposal that intensifies the levels of discipline for failed drug tests. He wants a player suspended 50 games for a first offense, 100 for a second and a lifetime ban for a third.

Rafael Palmeiro strolled into the big sports memorabilia show at the Hilton Hotel in Pikesville Sunday wearing an orange sweater, jeans and a hip goatee that made him look like the bass player in a jazz band. He was nearly three hours late. His flight from Texas had been delayed. Mechanical problems, Palmeiro explained as a crowd quickly formed to have the former Orioles great sign baseballs and bats and whatever else was thrust in front of him. "First time back in Baltimore?"

For the second time in two days, a high-profile member of the baseball community has blasted Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro, questioning the validity of his impressive statistics. One day after Hall of Famer Frank Robinson said Palmeiro's offensive numbers should be erased because he failed a drug test, Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling told WEEI radio in Boston he agreed with Robinson. "Yeah. I read something the other day about his career, his career numbers and how a lot of his career numbers coincide with certain dates, and he obviously sat next to me in Washington [before Congress]

Rafael Palmeiro sent up an unmistakable red flag about steroid use on March 17, at least in the mind of John Boe, a California body-language expert. That's when the Orioles first baseman testified before a congressional committee and denied ever using steroids. He punctuated his remarks with a few awkward jabs of his index finger, as if angrily ringing an invisible doorbell. Palmeiro might as well have mimicked shooting himself in the foot, Boe says. "That finger thing, in body-language terms, that's taking a baton and beating people over the head with it and telling them to back off," says Boe, who has analyzed about 10,000 personality profiles and writes frequently about body language.

Rafael Palmeiro was feeling pretty good about himself when he picked up the telephone one day late in the summer of 1988. His father was on the line, and he knew the conversation would quickly steer toward baseball. Palmeiro had always known his father to be tough on him, but he had three hits that day for the Chicago Cubs, helping him keep pace with Tony Gwynn in the race for the National League batting title. Jose Palmeiro had watched the game on television from Miami, and what he said would help transform a remarkable career.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Orioles reliever Rick Bauer would sit in the bullpen during games last season, glance at the score and anticipate the outcome. He didn't use a mathematical formula or some other sophisticated system. The lineup provided all the evidence he needed. Without guys like Miguel Tejada, Rafael Palmeiro and Javy Lopez in the middle, he had a pretty good idea the Orioles were going to stay behind. The size of the deficit wasn't important. "If we got down by two runs in the fifth inning, it didn't look good at all. We almost had no shot," he said.

Timing is everything. The great hitters have it. How else to send a 98-mph fastball into the stratosphere? The great performers depend on it. That's why they always seem to step into the spotlight.Rafael Palmeiro wants this to be his time.The Orioles head for Seattle tonight to prepare for the opening of the Division Series against the American League West champion Seattle Mariners. They could not have hoped to get there without the big-swinging first baseman who has led the club in RBIs the past four seasons, but Palmeiro never has gotten the national recognition that some of his contemporaries take for granted.

Rafael is still looking for the first long ball of the year ... " The announcer's voice floats from the TV toward the men hanging around the Latin Palace. The guys, members of a softball team sponsored by the Fells Point restaurant, chatter over the TV but train their eyes on Rafael Palmeiro, their Cuban-born hero, waiting for his first home run of the season as a returning Baltimore Oriole. Nice Friday night in mid-April. Top of the first. There's the pitch. The 39-year-old Palmeiro swings.

August 27, 1997: Rafael Palmeiro hit a game-winning grand slam as the O's beat the Royals.

Former Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro knew heading into Wednesday that his positive test for a banned steroid in 2005 was going to severely damage his chances of being selected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first opportunity. He didn't realize, however, exactly how little support he would receive from the voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. The 2011 Hall results were announced Wednesday afternoon, and Palmeiro was included on just 64 of the 581 ballots submitted — or 11 percent, falling woefully short of the 75 percent needed for induction.

Prime 9 5 p.m. [MLB Network] The list on this show is of all-time baseball gaffes. Two great steroid denials - Rafael Palmeiro's finger-pointing in Congress (left) and Alex Rodriguez's interview with Katie Couric - probably won't make the list.

Funny how things turn out sometimes. The arrival of Miguel Tejada four years ago was supposed to signal the dawn of a new era for the Orioles organization. Now, his departure is being cast the same way. The Houston Astros gave up five players to beef up the middle of their lineup. The Orioles took the first step in a "no pain, no gain" rebuilding process that will either put the organization back on the road to respectability or eventually confirm the worst fears of a fan following that had lost all confidence in Orioles management before the arrival of new president Andy MacPhail.

It's still November and the Orioles already have bought four relievers for more than the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' projected budget. While other clubs haggled over everyday players and starting pitchers, the Orioles quickly signed Danys Baez, Jamie Walker, Chad Bradford and Scott Williamson. It's simple, albeit expensive, logic: They don't want another haphazard collection of rookies and never-weres backing up a group of young starters. Argue the specifics, but at least the Orioles showed moxie by identifying a weakness and aggressively attacking it. There is a victory in there somewhere.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The souvenir stand tells the story of a proud franchise awakening from a deep slumber. Don Eney has been stocking the shelves at Camden Yards since 1997, a time when Orioles fans would line up to buy jerseys with Cal Ripken's No. 8, Brady Anderson's No. 9 and Mike Mussina's No. 35. Those stars left, and that era ended. Sales plummeted. For the past two years, Eney has filled the shelves with nameless and numberless Orioles jerseys. The rare fan who wanted a Jay Gibbons jersey or a Melvin Mora jersey had to wait.

WASHINGTON - In the aftermath of Rafael Palmeiro's steroids-policy violation, the man who accused Palmeiro of using the drugs in a book six months ago declined yesterday either to gloat or to claim his credibility had been upheld. Rather, Jose Canseco - who seems to make a habit of saying the unexpected - came to the defense of his former Texas Rangers teammate. In a daylong series of media interviews, Canseco and his attorney, Robert Saunooke, raised doubts yesterday about whether Palmeiro was recently injecting performance-enhancing drugs - as Canseco accused Palmeiro of doing in the early 1990s.