Why Raffy is a Hall of Famer
By Kevin Horn
I have never been a huge Rafael Palmeiro fan. Not that I disliked the man, but in an age of more exciting, more marketable superstars he was never a guy who’s poster I would have put up on my wall. Most of us youngsters growing up during Raffy’s heydays with the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles were pre-occupied with more marketable stars like Ken Griffey Junior, Frank Thomas and of course my boy Mikey Piazza. Rafael Palmeiro has been just one steady, consistent rock of a ball-player. He is now one of only four player to have hit 500 home runs and 3,000 hits. Think about that. If you missed the last two weeks, and had to pick which current superstar had just achieved that plateau, most people wouldn’t choose Palmeiro. He’s known more for his role as a Viagra spokesman than as a hall-of-fame candidate, but that is exactly what he is.
The first thing hanging over him is the steroid allegations (especially after he was named in Jose Canseco’s "book"). I don’t see how any player can be punished by steroid allegations. Regardless of how obvious steroid use may seem to US, without hard physical evidence against these Mark McGwire’s or Sammy Sosa’s, the hall-of-fame must consider them. I realize a lot of fans don’t agree with me, and some arrogant writers this spring even went so far as to say that Roger Maris should be re-instated as the home run king, (even after they wrote articles in 1998 about how great McGwire was, ie. RICK REILLY). All of these ball-players should be guilty until proven innocent, and unfortunately for McGwire, it may cost him the hall, which is a tragedy.
I think the largest problem facing Raffy is that he’s not a big name star. He’s never led a team on a pennant drive (although that’s not really that important anymore) and although he has two 47 home run seasons to his credit, he has never been in serious consideration for any MVP awards (to my knowledge). Part of his problem is he constantly played his career in other player’s shadows. In Texas he was under the shadow of players like Ruben Sierra, Juan Gonzalez and Ivan Rodriguez. In Baltimore he had to deal with being a second fiddle to Cal Ripken Jr. and Roberto Alomar. Even in college he was the second fiddle to Will Clark.
Compare Palmeiro’s numbers to another player who has had hall of fame talk and is a known superstar, Frank Thomas. Thomas has a career batting average of .307 with a career OPS of .995, he has 2,134 hits, 447 home runs, and 1,464 RBI’s.
Raffy’s numbers are: a career average of .289, OPS of 887, 3,004 hits, 567 home runs and 1,827 RBI’s. Palmeiro played in 2, 811 games, while Thomas has 1,956 games to his credit.
I think these numbers basically even out, and Thomas will probably reach the level that Palmeiro is at now before he retires. So my point is, why would Thomas then be considered a legitimate hall-of-fame candidate, when Palmeiro is not? Whenever a milestone such as 3,000 hits comes up, there are plenty of columns and opinions that fire out about that particular player. I wanted to contribute to this, simply because I don’t feel Palmeiro was getting the love he deserves and I wanted to make things right by a real classy ball player.
In the subject of "we should have kicked them when they were down" we venture to the New York Yankees. Due to Boston and Baltimore both playing mediocre baseball as of late, New York has been able to slink and creep their way back into the AL East division race. Going into tonight’s action, the Yankees were only a half game behind the Red Sox; although hopefully the Red Sox can do some damage to the "AAA" Tampa Bay Devil Rays. I bring this up for one important reason, this weekend’s 17-1 Red Sox blow out of the Yankees. Lately, it has seemed that every time one team blows about another in this rivalry, the winning team embarks on a slide. It happened in the playoffs last year, and it happened to the Yankees again this year. This makes me worry that the Red Sox might start a slide, and with Baltimore and Toronto not really impressing lately, The Yankees, after all their seasons struggles, may be able to build themselves a lead in the AL east, and after that all bets are off. All I can say is, this week, let’s go Texas!
