Palmeiro swears before Congress
Washington, DC- In a congressional hearing on steroid abuse in professional athletics, Raphael Palmeiro stated before congress that he had never used steroids. He actually went out of his way to make perfectly clear that he had NEVER taken steroids. Well three days ago news broke that Palmeiro had failed a drug test for a performance enhancing steroid and the Oriole has since changed his tune to I never intentionally used steroids. Yeah right, and I’ve never intentionally driven over the speed limit. Well to be honest I can’t much blame the guy for lying. After all, he’s a potential Hall of Fame candidate who has been busted as a hypocrite, a liar, and a cheat…he’s just trying to save some face. And despite saying that he has no idea how the steroids got into his system, there’s only one way it could have happened. Palmeiro was taking Stanozolol, the same drug that Ben Johnson infamously tested positive for 18 years ago at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Unlike some other steroids, there’s no way a positive test for Stanozolol can come from a contaminated nutritional supplement or protein powder. Sadly, a positive test for stanozolol can only come from injection or oral ingestion of the anabolic steroid itself. An oral stanozolol tablet will clear the body about about 14 days. Injectable stanozolol will clear the body in about 28 days, so more than likely he took the drug after going before Congress and swearing up and down against steriod use. What the heck could he have been thinking? Perhaps he just thought the MLBs drug testing policy was so lax it wouldn’t be a big deal if by some rare chance he did get a positive test. Apparently he was wrong…….or was he? For his positive test, Palmeiro faces a 10 day suspension. That’s right, 10 days!. When Ben tested positive track and field’s international governing body gave him a 4 year ban. That’s about 150 times as long as Palmeiro’s ban. This is what happens in a sport that takes cheating seriously. And while I’m in no way naive enough to suggest that drugs aren’t a big problem in elite track and field, I at least respect the sport for not making a complete mockery of the punishment process. If you’re going to say something is wrong at least hand down a punishment like it is. I do have to say though that I’m surprised that Palmeiro was even busted in the first place. I kinda figured that the big professional sports had too much at stake to bust one of their marquee players so I guess this is at least a minor step in the right direction.