Orioles cut short Rafael Palmeiro's 2005 season

Latino Legends in Sports News.

Orioles cut short Rafael Palmeiro's 2005 season

Written by Nelson Ortiz, www.latinosportslegends.com

September 23, 2005 -- Baltimore Orioles' management has decided that all the turmoil and controversy surrounding Rafael Palmeiro was causing too much of a distraction for the team, so they decided to cut short the season for beleaguered slugger.

"He won't be dressing for the rest of the year," Orioles executive vice president Jim Beattie said. "[We made this decision] for a variety of reasons; one, he would not play very much, if at all. And for him to get back into the flow of things would take some time, and then, obviously, the distraction of bringing all this back into the clubhouse.

"It's better off for these guys to be allowed to play out the season with as little distraction as they can. It's been a long season with respect to that."

The abrupt end to Palmeiro's season came one day after it was learned that he cited a vitamin he received from teammate Miguel Tejada as possibly causing the positive steroid test.

“Right now I'm in shock,” Tejada, a former American League MVP, said after Baltimore lost to the New York Yankees on Thursday night.

“I've never given anybody steroids before,” he said. “I've been checked out three times already, and I'm clean. I've been clean all my life.”

Tejada said he gave Palmeiro the B12 injection “a long time ago.”

The 40-year-old Palmeiro, who is one of just four players in major league history with 3,000 hits and 500 homers, served a 10-day suspension for the positive test, but was just 2-for-26 with one RBI in seven games following the ban. He was also nursing knee and ankle injuries.

Palmeiro has not yet decided whether to return for the 2006 season. He hit .266 with 18 home runs and 60 RBIs this year.