Anthony Bolante / Reuters file

Orioles slugger Rafael Palmeiro has more than 3,000 hits, 500 homers and a whole lot of negative publicity now, NBCSports.com contributor Michael Ventre says.

Nifty wording from his attorney, by the way. Kudos. Way to face the music while denying culpability. Using the word “intentionally” twice was an especially nice touch.

This reminds me of an old Cheech and Chong routine, where a lawyer is defending a stoner in court on possession charges: “Your honor, my client had merely FOUND these drugs, and was on his way to the police department to turn them in at the time of his arrest.”

It makes you wonder just how long Palmeiro had been unintentionally taking a substance that turns cans of corn into dingers. Jose Canseco said in his tell-all book that he introduced Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez to steroids when they were all teammates in Texas in 1992. Canseco had been traded there from Oakland in August of that season.

So, for example, if you mark Palmeiro’s home run totals from ’93 to the present – assuming Canseco is telling the truth, and assuming Palmeiro took steroids from that point until the moment of his capture this season – that calls 474 of his homers into question. If the accusations are true, that’s a lot of juice.

Actually, if you look at Palmeiro’s pre-Canseco numbers versus his post-Canseco numbers, the latter are far more, shall we say, muscular. His highest RBI total in seven major league seasons before ’93 was 89. After ’93, he drove in over 100 runs in 10 of the next 11 campaigns.

His home run totals spiked, too. He had never hit more than 26 taters before 1993. In 11 seasons after ’93, however, he hit 37 or more 10 times.

During these years, no one can say for sure that the use of steroids was rampant, but rumors about their widespread use certainly were.  This was the modern age when scouts began to place a high value on a prospect’s musculature as well as his ability to hit, run, field and throw. Players, in turn, were hitting the weight room like never before, convinced that puffed up chests and meaty forearms would translate into big-money contracts.

Steroids had been around for years. Arnold Schwarzenegger  admitted using them during his “Pumping Iron” days in the ‘70s. Lyle Alzado, who died of brain cancer in 1992, said he started using them in 1969 and never stopped.

But they didn’t reach the epidemic stage in baseball until the ‘90s — while both the union and the commissioner’s office stood idly by and watched.

Today, along with Rafael Palmeiro, they’re paying the price.

More news

Tony Gutierrez / AP

More heroics from Hamilton

Josh Hamilton fights off illness to hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 13th inning, lifting the Texas Rangers to an 8-7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Angels win as Pujols HR streak up to 3 games

SEATTLE (AP) - Albert Pujols hit a home run in his third straight game and pinch hitter Alberto Callaspo came through with a grand slam in the sixth inning to give the Los Angeles Angels a 5-3 win over the Seattle Mariners on Saturday.

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