atlanticleague.com: Press Box

Sporting News: Rafael Palmeiro makes return to pro baseball to play with son

By Gabrielle McMillen @GabbyMcMillen

Updated on Sep. 18, 2015

Former MLB slugger Rafael Palmeiro will make something of a comeback when he takes the field with his son's team.

The 50-year-old has signed on to play in three games this weekend for the Sugar Land Skeeters of the independent Atlantic League. He will be alongside his 25-year-old son, Patrick, who is the team's third baseman.

“The chance to play with my son is an opportunity the Skeeters have offered me and I’m very excited to make it happen this weekend,” Palmeiro said, via the Baltimore Sun.

The last time Palmeiro played professional baseball was with the Orioles on Aug. 30, 2005, when he notoriously wore earplugs in Toronto to drown out the crowd's booing after he came back from his suspension for PED use.

Palmeiro was a four-time All-Star who played for the Cubs, Rangers and Orioles. He hit 569 home runs with 1,835 RBIs in his 19-year career, but he'll forever be linked with baseball's steroid era because of a 10-day suspension in 2005 for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

Despite being one of four players in history with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs, Palmeiro's Hall of Fame eligibility abruptly ended in 2014 when he failed to garner the required 5 percent of votes to remain on the ballot.

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2015-09-17/former-oriole-rafael-palmeiro-to-take-the-field-with-son-sugar-land-skeeters

| Back to index...