Player: Rafael Palmeiro
Set: 1987 Topps and Donruss
Card Number: 634 and 43 respectively
Why is These Cards are Must Have?: Raffy had it all, over 3000 hits, over 500 home runs, squeaky clean image, and a first ballot ticket to the Hall of Fame. Then it all came crashing down on August 1, 2005, they day they released he had been detected using steroids. Now on one side, he never failed a drug test including one taken three months prior to the one he tested positive for. On the other side you have an accusation in Jose Canseco’s book. Say what you want about Canseco, but everything he has written about so far has come to fruition. My stance is that a typical player has a bell curve when you look at his statistics with the apex being somewhere between 27 – 29. Great players have a wider curve, but it’s almost always bell shaped. The problem with Palmeiro is that he had a peak at 27, then another peak in 33 – 35. The second peak happens to fall right in the steroid era wheelhouse (1999-2001). So we know at least one point in his career he juiced. Now we want to believe him, that it was accidental, but when you look at his stats you have to scratch your head. He still hit two big milestones and for that alone he should be in your collection.
On a Scale of 1 to 10, How Must Have Are These Cards?: A 7, if he makes it into the Hall (which I am on the fence about) he becomes an 8, but until then he’s the only major player accused of and found guilty of performance enhancing drugs. You can find these card for no more than $1 on eBay.
I think the 7 is way hi here. I just don’t see the hall thing happening for Raffy. Unless we look at steroids differently 10 years from now, which we may.
I do hope that he does get in. I was standing about 20 feet from where his final home run landed – it happened just days before the steroid thing broke. I would like to able to say I was at the last gm where a HOF hit a homer, but I just don’t see it going that way.
I’m unsure about him in the HoF too. I think he may, eventually, but not in the first several years. He’s a guy that always did big things but flew under the radar because he played on some teams that never got much national coverage. Because of that, I don’t know how badly the steriod accusation, true or not, will hurt his image.
Of all your Definitive Collections posts, this is the first one that I own both cards. The 87 Topps is a nice looking card.
Palmeiro is in a very elite class of baseball’s greatest hitters. 3,000 hits and 5oo home runs should get anyone into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot unless that have been banished from the game. The media made an example out of McGwire, will they do it to Palmeiro and Clemens too?
This is really the first ranking that i disagree with. I never put Palmiero up there with the greats of his generation, even when he was playing. To me he is a guy who was an accumulator, a guy who played a long time as a decent player. I was on the fence about him getting into the Hall before the steroids thing. Now I don’t think he ever gets in. His cards were never ones that had much hobby importance, so I’d rank his cards a 4 at best.