Rafael Palmeiro Corrales (born September 24, 1964) is a Cuban-American former professional baseball first baseman and left fielder. He played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for three teams. Palmeiro was an All-American at Mississippi State University before being drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1985. He played for the Cubs (1986–1988), Texas Rangers (1989–1993, 1999–2003), and the Baltimore Orioles (1994–1998, 2004–2005).
He was named to the MLB All-Star Team four times, and won the Gold Glove three times. He is one of only seven players in MLB history to be a member of both the 500 home run club and the 3,000 hit club. Days after recording his 3,000th hit, Palmeiro received a 10-game suspension for testing positive for an anabolic steroid.
Palmeiro was born in Havana, Cuba, but moved to the United States at the age of seven. He graduated from Miami Jackson High School in Miami, Florida. Although he was drafted by the New York Mets in the 8th round of the 1982 draft, he did not sign.
Palmeiro was recruited by Ron Polk and enrolled at Mississippi State University, where he played college baseball for the Bulldogs in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). He was the first of two players to have ever won the SEC triple crown, both of whom are Mississippi State products. A teammate of Will Clark, the two were known as "Thunder and Lightning".
Clark and Palmeiro were known to dislike each other, dating back to their time at Mississippi State. On June 11, 1985, Palmeiro signed with the Chicago Cubs as the 22nd pick in the 1st round of the 1985 draft. He was drafted as a compensation pick from the San Diego Padres, to whom the Cubs lost Tim Stoddard via free agency.
Minor league career (1985–1987)
In 1985, Palmeiro played with the Peoria Chiefs of the Class A level Midwest League. In his first professional season, Palmeiro batted .297 with 5 home runs and 51 RBI in 73 games. He played exclusively in the outfield. Palmeiro played for the Pittsfield Cubs of the Class AA level Eastern League in 1986. With Pittsfield, Palmeiro played exclusively in the outfield and hit .306 with 12 home runs and 95 RBI in 140 games, before a September call up to the major leagues. In 1987, Palmeiro played for the Iowa Cubs of the Class AAA level American Association. In 57 games Palmeiro hit .299 with 11 home runs and 41 RBI before being called up the major leagues. He played the outfield in 47 games and made his debut at 1B, playing 9 games.
Palmeiro debuted on September 8, 1986, in a game between the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field, as a left fielder. In his first season, he played 22 games, having a .247 batting average while having 12 RBIs and 3 home runs. In the next season, he played in 84 games, garnering 61 hits, 14 home runs and 30 RBIs with a .276 average. During his tenure with the Cubs, he normally played left field, though occasionally he would play other outfield positions or first base. Palmeiro was the runner up to National League batting champion Tony Gwynn in 1988 with a .307 batting average, only six points below Gwynn's. He had 178 hits, 8 home runs and 53 RBIs in 629 plate appearances and 152 games. He was named to the 1988 MLB All-Star Game, the first in his career.
In the 1988 offseason, the Cubs were craving a reliever and knew they had to trade one of their young aspiring stars, with reports signaling potentially trading Shawon Dunston. With the emergence Mark Grace at first base and the possibility of keeping Palmeiro at left field, the Cubs decided to swing for a reliever by trading Palmeiro. In December 1988, Palmeiro was traded by the Cubs to the Texas Rangers along with Jamie Moyer and Drew Hall in exchange for Mitch Williams, Paul Kilgus, Steve Wilson, Curtis Wilkerson, Luis Benitez, and Pablo Delgado. Palmeiro immediately trashed the trade, referring to Cubs GM Jim Frey and manager Don Zimmer as people who "don’t know what they’re doing. These guys in the front office . . . it’s going straight down, it seems like.” As for the Rangers, GM Tom Grieve stated, “Raffy was the guy we wanted. We wanted a guy who could hit the toughest pitchers and we thought Raffy was the guy. Nothing against Grace, but if they had asked us to do it for him, I don’t know that we would have. We liked Raffy.”
Upon moving to the American League, Palmeiro was primarily used as a first baseman or designated hitter. Palmeiro blossomed as a hitter while with the Rangers, leading the league in hits in 1990 and doubles in 1991. In 1989, he hit for .275 that season, having 64 RBIs, 8 home runs and 154 hits. In 1990, he was third in the American League in batting. He hit for .319 during the season, while having 89 RBIs and 14 home runs and leading the league in hits (191). He hit 49 doubles in 1991 (a season high along with a career high), while having 203 hits, 26 home runs and 88 RBIs for a .322 batting average. He was named to his second career All-Star Game that year. He dipped in every category in 1992, having 163 hits, 22 home runs, 85 RBIs and a .268 batting average.
He bounced back the following year (a contract season) with a career high 124 runs (leading the American League that year), 176 hits, a then-career high 37 home runs along with 105 RBIs and a .295 batting average. He was offered a five-year contract worth $26 million after the season, however the Rangers ultimately signed Palmiero's ex-Mississippi State teammate Will Clark instead for $30 million and five years, causing Palmeiro to call Clark a "low life", though he later apologized. Palmiero soon signed with the Baltimore Orioles in December 1993.
Palmeiro signed a 5-year contract, worth more than $30 million. In his first season as an Oriole, Palmeiro hit 23 home runs, a season that was abbreviated due to a work stoppage. He had 76 RBIs (the last time he would have less than 100 RBIs until 2004) along with a .319 batting average. Prior to Palmeiro's 1995 season, he had hit more than 30 home runs only once (37 in 1993).
Starting in 1995, Palmeiro began a streak of 38+ home run years that continued through the 2003 season. He hit 373 home runs during this nine-season span, while also driving in over 100 runs in each of these seasons. However, Palmeiro never led the league in home runs, and he is history's most prolific home run hitter to have never won the home run crown.
That season, he led the team in home runs, batting average, and runs batted in. In the 1996 season, he hit 39 home runs, 181 hits, and 142 runs batted in and helped the Orioles qualify for the American League Wild Card. This was both his first postseason appearance in his career along with the first postseason appearance for the Orioles since 1983. In his first postseason, he had seven total hits, six RBIs and a combined .205 average while playing in all nine games the Orioles played, as they beat the Cleveland Indians in the 1996 American League Division Series to advance to the 1996 American League Championship Series before being beat by the New York Yankees. He finished 6th in MVP balloting, his highest finish up to that point in his career.
Despite having 109 strikeouts (a career high) and a .254 batting average, he had 110 RBIs, 156 hits along with 38 home runs in 1997 as he helped the team win their division for the first time since 1983. He also was awarded the Rawlings Gold Glove Award that season, his first ever. In the 1997 American League Division Series, the Orioles beat the Seattle Mariners in four games. In the postseason, he had 10 combined hits along with 2 RBIs and 1 home run and a .265 average in the 10 games he played in the postseason, as the Orioles once again advanced to the ALCS after beating the Seattle Mariners before losing to the Indians in six games. This would be the last time the Orioles would make the playoffs until 2012 and last time they would win a division title until 2014. The next season, his last with his first stint with the Orioles, he hit 43 home runs, to lead the team for the 4th time. He had 183 hits along with 121 RBIs and a .296 batting average. He was named to the 1998 MLB All-Star Game, his first since 1991. He also won a Gold Glove for the second straight year along with his first Silver Slugger Award, while finishing 18th in MVP balloting. In his time with the Orioles, he received MVP votes each year, though he never finished higher than 6th.