Just remember Raffy, when you point your finger like that...you've got four more pointing right back at you.

His statements today sound an awful lot like what he said before Congress. Which makes that look more like a rehearsed response than an adamant and emotional appeal.

And like I said, he was the only one sitting at that table I believed.

Now I don't know what to think anymore.

I was very sad to hear this.

What a sad day for Raffy, a sad day for the Orioles and a sad day for baseball.

Let's just hope there will be no others.

k-bro

makes the whole hall of fame thing a little more interesting, no?

It sure would be nice if they would release the actual substace that these players test positive for. Not that it really matters much, but it would be nice to know.

All i can say is...Its about time a big name player gets called out on banned drug use. Who will be next? I say...Giambi. Maybe Sosa... My real dream is that all of the bitch sox players will be found positive and the whole team will be suspended...Oh...that would be such a great reality.

My dream is that Barry Bonds and everyone from the 2004 red sox get caught.

Damn, he's a bigger name than I thought would ever get caught. I still think the whole testing regime is messed up, and it makes me hate congress more for pushing one year susp after one positive and lifetime ban for second positive.

It really doesn't Joe, since Bonds will most likely end up there.

Was it Viagra?????

i hope this is the beginning of a series of major players being busted. it's time for baseball to clean house.

The roids probably necessitated the Viagra, donnalove (presuming the accusations are true). While puffing up the muscles, I hear tell they deplete the manhood.

ESPN is reporting that Bret Boone has tested positive for sucking. More details as they become available.

Romero must be Boone's supplier.

Meanwhile, from the Department of Pain, comes this about Torii:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2121938

Well, I hope everyone that's accusatory here is enjoying themselves.

Thanks to the good wishes of others.

sexual disfunction is a recorded side effect of steroid use.

he has at least 500 abs in 16 of the last 17 seasons and his home run totals for those years were;

8,8,14,26,22,37,39,39,38,43,47,39,47,43,38,23

quite a leap don't you think?

None of this is proof, but coupled with a positive test...

(a little bit of stats, a little bit of sass)

I'm shocked. . . Whether he did it or not, it's a shame that Raffy's name is going to be tarnished because of this. I always thought of him as a stand up guy. It's a sad, sad situation for him and his fans.

I'm pretty sure the fact that they've announced it means that he lost his appeal. Which means he took steroids. I've never been much of a Raffy fan--I've always thought he was overrated(though I have to say I enjoyed making Viagra jokes and thus enjoyed his career since the ads came out) but it still sucks that he tested positive for steroids. I assume it feels a lot like when the Kirby scandal happened--a man you've been a fan of forever, who seemed like a stand up guy, is suddenly revealed to not be the person you thought he was. Coupled with the O's slide, well, my condolences go out to you Carrie (and other O's fans). It looks like neither the Twins nor O's are going to be able to make that O's-Twins ALCS match up happen, which is a damn shame.

He was also the only one at that table I believed, despite how much I love Mark McGwire.

The sad part is that I knew that Jose Canseco was telling the truth, despite how repugnant he is. Being repugnant doesn't necessarily make you a liar. But I was hoping that it was all in the past, and that the guys at that table had learned their lesson and had cleaned up. People make mistakes.

I had also wondered if perhaps that was why he needed Viagra, as the need for Viagra (ahem) is a common side effect of taking steroids. If not for the Viagra aspect, I probably would never have even entertained the notion that he might not be clean.

The whole thing is sad, and whether it's Boo, Raffy or even Giambi, I take no pleasure in any of it. They're still human beings, and even human beings who bring misfortune upon themselves deserve some sympathy from fellow human beings. Baseball is not played in a vacuum.

Sorry, Carrie. It really sucks. :-(

Do we know that he actually tested positive for STEROIDS? I heard he was using the Sanchez/Rincon defense: "It must have been something in my supplements."

I'll tell you what, Rafael the ninja turtle would never do steroids. Sure, he did some mutagen ooz back when he was a baby, but he grew out of it when he was still very young.

A sad day, indeed.

To Dan In London. No, it's not a jump. It actually looks pretty consistent.

If you want a jump. Look at Bonds.

What...40 something, than 70, than 40 again. Hmmm...

This is quite the shock. I was very suprised when I heard about this one. You have to wonder though, How many more players would be caught if they actually did blood testing like most of the international sports federations do? As far as I know they just have the cup and there are quite a few things that dont show up in the cup.

Oh and Dan, yeah those numbers are pretty consistent. Very few power hitters start their career hitting the cover off the ball. Just look at Morneau. He should be hitting 30-40 a year in a couple years. He just needs to get comfortable with major league pitching and hit his stride.

When Raffy was with the Cubs ('86-'88 I think?), he was my little sister's favorite player. She wrote him a very nice letter and never received a response. So if there's any karmic retribution for ignoring a 6-year-old girl, perhaps this is it.

Torhu,

yeah I take your point,

but I went to baseball reference.com and looked up a bunch of hall of fame 500 home run guys. They were all hitting a lot of home runs very early on in their careers, certainly none of them even came close to Palmeiro's slow start.

apart from the super big season bonds actually hit quite a lot of home runs from the start, and to give something of a comparison ripken started with 20 straight seasons of at least 20 home runs before home run totals dropped. not 8, 8 14.

I think, and ok a little bit of this is hindsight, that Palmeiro's career screams STEROIDS.

But I do feel for him, he must be going through hell at the moment, with so many regrets and uncertainty. I do think we need to go after players who cheat, but if we can find a way to have some compassion too that would be nice.

Aaaauuuuuggghh! I believed him! (bangs head on desk) I figured he'd stupidly taken some supplement that tripped him up. Hell, *I've* taken supplements in my time - I can't resist the names of some of them. Wild Mexican Yam, indeed. Sounds like kind of a partying tequila-sodden vegetarian thing. Works for me.

But no! "Rafael Palmeiro's positive steroid test was for stanozolol, a powerful anabolic steroid that is not available in dietary supplements".

I've been had. He lied to me. He lied to *Congress*. High on the list of things you would never catch me doing, is perjuring myself before the world's most powerful legislative body, many of whom care personally about baseball, and all of whom care about appearing All-American and Anti-Drug. Forget about what MLB can do to him - I would not want Congress to hold a personal grudge against me. I'd be liquidating my assets and fleeing the country.

If "they" are serious about steroids, every player needs to pee in a cup, every game. No random intermittent testing, no Whizzinators, no 10-game slap on the wrist.

However, if the genie is out of the bottle, and steroids are truly not going to go away, then we need to stop pretending that it matters, and can the testing and suspensions. If I want hypocrisy and lying, I'll turn on C-Span. If I want something unifying and inspiring and just plain fun, I watch sport.

My condolences to Orioles and Palmiero fans.

Disgusted,

LA Lurkers