A 'point' about Raffy

Baseball's Rafael Palmeiro, known to his fans as "Raffy" (as opposed to Israeli children's songster Raffi), sat in front of the TV cameras, Congress, and the world, pointed to those cynics in the room and flatly exclaimed that he did not then, before or ever use steroids as a player.
"Ever. Period." He emphasized his innocence with a pointed finger and all but challenged anyone to the Gary Hart test - catch me if you can.
Oops, Donna Rice has shown up in Raffy's life. She is the he that administers the drug tests in Major League Baseball. And the net has snared Palmeiro, with the announcement of the 10-game suspension immediately following Raffy's personal career achievement of 3,000 hits to go with more than 560 home runs.
Even now, Palmeiro states sheepishly that he has never "knowingly" use steroids and doesn't know how in the world the substance got into his body and those test tubes. Even a fan like George W. Bush believes that bit of fantasy (he publically stated that he believes Palmeiro's non-explanation) but we could go on about weapons of mass destruction and other tales of fantasies that the White House holds to be gospel.
Here's the problem. Palmeiro COULD be correct. He might NOT have knowingly taken a steroid but still ingested something that had ingredients with steroid-like qualities. This is making assumptions not yet in evidence. One of the major problems with "nutritional supplements" these days is the amount of non-disclosed additives that have steroid-like effects on the body. Almost all these ingredients are kept secret from the person using the product. Hence, you might THINK you are OK when in fact, it isn't.
The public and press keep thinking that steroids can only be injected. Not true anymore. When Jose Canseco, in his book, claimed to be shooting up half his teammates with the magic juice, that was in 1992, and this is 13 years later - a world of technological difference. It can now be ground into a powder, drank as a milk shake and marketed as a power builder to maintain strength.
Does this make you dumb? No. Does this make you feel stupid? Of course. Do this make you out to be a cheater? No. But do you have to pay a penalty? Yes.
Canseco is gaining credibility by the day and for a person who was fairly rotten to his coure, as selfish a player as ever donned a uniform, it would be a shame for him to come out as some sort of hero.
Of all those accused in that text, Palmeiro seemed the least likely because he didn't look like he was a user. No huge muscles, nothing special about him physically. Just a quality player with 20 years in MLB. His home runs weren't like those of Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa - moonshots that traveled half the distance to the sun. His were just home runs, over the fence because his swing (which steroids can do nothing about) got better over time.
The home run swing can be achieved by brute force and muscle or by speed, timing and perfect contact - much like seeing a 5-6 man outdrive a 6-4 player. Palmeiro refined his swing and changed it into more of an uppercut finish to add loft. Then, if you play long enough against lousy pitching in ballparks built for HR hitting, you can get to 500 for a lifetime.
It's been a strange year for baseball. This is just one more chapter. Stay tuned.