Change is Gonna Do Me Good

On the advice of several readers, and after many, many minutes of soul searching on my own part, I’ve decided that a change is in order here at NMTE. As such, you will (hopefully) notice, over the next week or so, a new format to the posts, a decreased length/increased frequency of posts and a renewed focus on the world of sports, sports entertainment and sports business. I hope you will all be pleased.

Rest assured, loyal reader, your favorite features, including the Inane Query Letter of the Week, the ‘I Killed Tony Danza’ Absurd (Near) Death of the Week, the sporadic NMTE Movie Review and guest columns by Smokey the Chimp or his other puffing primate pals will remain intact. It is the day-to-day of the site that will change most, starting with, as the baseball season hits its stretch run, a daily Sox recap (planned for the morning after a game), a daily “top story” ripped-from-the-headlines type post, links to my favorite columnists new stories and other random sports news, notes, thoughts and opinions as the day goes. I hope that I am not alienating any of my illustrious clientele (all 6 of you), but I feel like this space is getting a little stale and could use some focus. Think of it as a test run on a greater tomorrow for NMTE. And should this initial trial crash land into the hard ground of reality, careen off the runway of entertainment and spontaneously burst into burning hot flames of banality, you can look back to today as the beginning of the end. Or is it the end of the beginning?

Anywho, on to business:

[PHOTO COURTESY OF DIRTDOGS]

The big story of the day, just as guest columnist Smokey the Chimp told you it would be, is superstar slugger Rafael Palmeiro’s 10-game suspension for (allegedly) failing a steroid test. Palmeiro, of course, has vehemently denied any allegations of his (alleged) use of drugs in the past both to the media in the wake of (alleged) allegations in Jose Canseco’s tell-all book and to Congress during the March 17th hearings on Capitol Hill, where an indignant Palmeiro (allegedly) shook his finger at the House committee and the world and proclaimed “I have never (allegedly) used steroids. Period. I (allegedly) don't know how to say it any more clearly than that. (Allegedly) Never."

Bob Hohler gives a pretty straightforward roundup of the events leading up to and the facts surrounding the suspension, including several insightful quotes from several experts on the subject (that he appears to have lifted from accompanying AP articles).

Buster Olney, fresh from a full 4 hours of rest following Sunday’s trade deadline, filed a piece last night on ESPN.com casting doubt on Raffy’s hiding behind the ubiquitous “confidentiality agreement”, saying:

“(Palmeiro) read his statement before declining to answer the many unanswered questions about his case: What he tested positive for; when he tested positive; when his case went before the arbitrator; how the whole thing could've taken place. "I would love to tell what happened to me, so everyone would understand," he said.

To that I respond: Tell your whole story, Raff. Tell us how, when, why, what, everything. Until then, I'm not buying a word of what you say.

You can't talk because of a confidentiality agreement? Please. A total smoke screen. The confidentiality stuff is built into this to protect him. Bud Selig can't talk about his case. Don Fehr can't talk about his case. Nothing is preventing Rafael Palmeiro from talking about his case other than Rafael Palmeiro.

In this morning’s New York Times, Bill Pennington helped blow the lid off of the suspicious delay between the time of Palmeiro’s testing and the timing of his suspension, albeit through the gauzy lens of unnamed sources:

Three people in baseball with direct knowledge of the drug-testing program said yesterday that Major League Baseball was aware early last month that Palmeiro had failed a steroid test as he neared the career milestone of 3,000 hits. When Palmeiro collected his 3,000th hit on July 15, Major League Baseball paid for full-page congratulatory newspaper advertisements.

The three people did not want to be identified because the testing policy prohibits anyone in baseball from disclosing information about test results without authorization.

One of the people said that the 40-year-old Palmeiro had appealed the test findings and that in mid-July the process was on its way to an arbitrator.

Palmeiro is the seventh major league player to test positive for a banned substance this season under baseball's new drug policy but the first to have a grievance before baseball's four-member Health Policy Advisory Committee passed on to an arbitrator. It was not immediately known when Palmeiro was tested except that the test was given during the regular season.

The penalty against Palmeiro was held in abeyance until the arbitrator Shyam Das decided yesterday not to overturn it.

And Tom Verducci of SI reports that he had “heard as far back as July 26th that a 'major star' had flunked a drug test…(but) there was no way commissioner Bud Selig was going to allow Palmeiro’s flunked drug test to precede the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies,” implying a planned cover-up of Palmeiro’s guilt by Major League Baseball until after the HOF ceremony and the brouhaha of Raffy’s 3000th hit died down.

If this is the case, if Palmeiro was given special treatment in arbitration, had his suspension delayed due to gerrymandering of the rules by the Player’s Association or MLB in order to save face going into the trade deadline-HOF induction news spike, then the Rafael Palmeiro story won’t stop here. Palmeiro may be the first big name star to be caught using steroids, but he won’t be the last, and I for one hope that when the next star is caught, he’s given the Ryan Franklin treatment instead of the Raffy Palmeiro treatment.