Rafael Palmeiro
Rafael Palmeiro
Rafael Palmeiro Corralesis a retired Cuban American Major League Baseball first baseman and left fielder. Palmeiro was an All-American at Mississippi State University before being drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1985. He played for the Cubs, Texas Rangers, and the Baltimore Orioles. He was named to the MLB All-Star Team four times, and won the Gold Glove three times. He is a member of the 500 home run club and the 3,000 hit club and is one of only...
NationalityCuban
ProfessionAthlete
Date of Birth24 September 1964
CountryCuba
I've always known to come to the ballpark and play and be in the lineup. I've never missed time because of injuries. I've had days off, where I knew coming in that I wasn't going to play, but I've never sat out 10 days in a row during the season. That was totally new to me. To play a whole career and not know what that's like, that's unusual. Now I'm dealing with it as best I can.
You just want to be able to have a nice career and make a living at it.
Staying here and helping this team get back to .500 is a possibility, and it would be a great thing if we were able to do that, ... I want to help them do that, and, in the meantime, hopefully work something out so I could finish my career here.
The tragedy of all of this is that it happened to me and it shouldn't have happened. It ruined my life and my career. That's the tragedy of this.
My life was on the line here and my career and everything I worked for, it was hanging by a thread
I hope that people look at my whole career and appreciate that I've given everything that I've got.
You know, when you first come up, and you get called up to the big leagues, all you want to do is just, you just want to have a career, a nice career. You want to make a living at it
I've never been in a situation where I'm getting booed so badly and I just don't really know how to handle it,
I've never been in a position where I've been booed so badly, and I didn't know what to do,
At the time, I thought that was the best I could do. Maybe it wasn't the right thing to do but I did what I had to do at the time.
I don't, but if he'd swing the bat, he would be. It's not different than anyone else.
I wouldn't think so. I mean, that's why I got it from him. I didn't suspect that he would be on anything.
I wish I could have turned in the vial for testing. But when I found out, it was long gone and I couldn't come up with it. If something happened that I'm not aware of, an intentional act by someone else, I don't know. I can't rule out anything.
I'd like to come back and play before the year's over. But it's not in my hands.