Rafael Palmeiro measures his 2011 Hall of Fame induction credentials
It seems that the Hall of Fame nomination is about to hit another bump on the road, as Rafael Palmeiro enters the ballot for the first time. The Cuban first baseman will be the topic of much deliberation when the Hall of Fame class
of 2011 will be announced in the coming days. The player, who made it to the books with a concrete bat-swinging career, will be the topic of discussion when the nominations for the Hall of Fame will enter the ballot for a voting process.
However, a discussion and debate on Mark McGwire’s progression through the Hall of Fame induction process will get a new coin to flick on, given Palmeiro’s history and career ending controversy. The strong hitter will be remembered
for being a unique player to pile up 3020 hits and 569 home runs in his career. Having played for more than 20 seasons, Rafael has the right numbers to pull him up to the Hall of Fame nomination.
Unfortunately, there is a reason why McGwire was mentioned earlier. Palmeiro may have done the right thing with the bat, but when the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voters will look at his credentials, they will hesitate
over a controversial fact. Rafael ended his career on the dawn of a Major League Baseball suspension for violating drug rules. The player was convicted in 2005 for using steroids and was dealt with a 10-day ouster from play.
McGwire has been in the ballot for many years now and his vote count has not even come close to the 75% mark, which is required to qualify. His percentages have been coming up as, 23.5%, 23.6%, 21.9% and 23.7% for the past four
years and that is something Rafael will be vary of in the coming results. He talked about the situation 4 months ago and pleaded his case to the voters.
"I'd hope voters would look at my body of work over my career and maybe put more emphasis on that," Palmeiro had said in August 2010. "That one steroid incident is unfortunately all people remember. They don't remember the other
19 years that I played the game the right way. I always played the game the right way, I never created any problems, and I always honoured my contract and came ready to play."
If there is one thing to pin Palmeiro up in the ranks, it is his consistency. The top player did well between 1993 and 2003. The time period known as the ‘Era Domination’ spelled well for the hitter who amassed 433 homers and drove
in 1266 runs for his team. With a slugging rate of .555, one could see the player making it to the top spot in the Hall of Fame faster than Mark McGwire does.
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