Rafael Palmeiro: “voters are putting too much weight on the one incident”

Mel Antonen caught up with Rafael Palmeiro today after the Hall of Fame vote was announced. Palmeiro is understandable disappointed with his vote total. After saying some nice things about Roberto Alomar and saying that he thought he himself would get more support than he did, Palmeiro made an appeal to the voters:

“I hear some voters talk about how they’ll probably vote for Barry Bonds because he was a Hall of Famer before he (allegedly) took steroids. Well, why can’t they do the same thing for me? I had one bad mistake at the end of my career. Voters are putting too much weight on the one incident. I wish they would look at my whole career. If they want, why don’t they use throw out the last season of my career? I would still have Hall of Fame numbers.”

I’m actually kinda skeptical that Bonds will get in the Hall any time soon after he first becomes eligible. The voters drew a line in the sand today: if you’re merely suspected of ‘roiding, less than half of them will vote for you. If you were ever caught, you’re getting less than 20% of the vote. Bonds didn’t test positive, but there’s a mountain of evidence against him and I predict that he’ll be in Mark McGwireland when he comes up for a vote. Maybe 30%, because he was so darn good, but not much more.

As for Palmeiro: good luck thinking that people will change their minds on you, but they won’t.