King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Rafael Palmeiro's drug denials sound more like Bush or Rove than Clinton. The readers write.
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Aug. 2, 2005 | Rafael Palmeiro's failed steroid test remains Topic A in the sports world for a second day. It's a talker, as they say at editorial meetings, and a good one.
Even before he came up dirty, Rafael Palmeiro was a subject fraught with gray areas, and gray areas are fun to talk about.
How good has he been? Is he a Hall of Famer? Is sustained pretty-goodness over 20 years Hall-worthy, or does a player have to have a peak when he dominates the game or at least his position?
And how should we judge Palmeiro for never having played on a pennant winner, for reaching the playoffs only three times in 19 years, probably soon to be three times in 20? Was he just unlucky to end up on teams -- Cubs, Rangers, Orioles, Rangers again, Orioles again -- that consistently finished out of the money?
Or, considering that he chose his last three destinations, is he somehow responsible; is there something about having Rafael Palmeiro on a team that keeps it from winning? And what about the way he vetoed that trade from the woeful Texas Rangers to the contending Chicago Cubs in 2003?
Getting caught in the drug test dragnet makes for even more gray areas, because as much as some people like to pretend that drugs are a black-and-white issue, in sports and beyond, they're not.
If you don't believe me, listen to reader Phil Groce, who, referring to Palmeiro's former job as a spokesman for Viagra, made a joking point that I think, seriously, would make a good topic for a book:
"It says a lot about the world we live in that a national spokesperson for one performance enhancer can be suspended for another one," he wrote.
Here are more comments from you all, with a lot of replies from me.
Rich Greenwood: Might be an interesting column to focus on the idea of honor, which has really disappeared in sports, with the rare exception such as the New England Patriots generally and the Boston Red Sox last year.
These dudes make so much bank they don't have to care, but it sure would be nice if they did.
I just did a film in an amateur competition and it really brought home the value of unpaid competition: The unpaid stuff is all passion; the paid sports is part show, part go. Mostly show.
King replies: I don't know. I think you can take this too far.