Well, I agree with the overall point that Palmeiro‘s credentials really are solely his counting stats which attained some “Hall-Worthy” totals and those were almost certainly attained through steroid use. But I’m not sure you can point to his lack of injuries as “proof” he was using steroids. My understanding of roids is that they often *lead* to nagging injuries as ligaments and tendons are not strengthened at the rate that muscles are. Do you apply the same logic to Cal Ripken?
Second, He was a first baseman, a position that typically isn’t very injury-prone.
Sure -- I mean, there's probably a reason we're having this conversation about him instead of, say, a player like Dustin Pedroia.
Well, we do have
proof Palmeiro was using steroids when he got his 3,000th hit: he'd already tested positive and was appealing his case (unsuccessfully). He was suspended 10 days later.
As for whether he was using it throughout the rest of his career? Well, it does seem odd to me for a guy to never once go on the DL a single time. Look at these games played:
The guy barely took a game off over 17 seasons -- he played less than 152 games exactly once during that time, not counting the 1994 strike year. That's an average of 156.5 games per year.
Let's compare Albert Pujols, who played 22 seasons:
Similar ironman workload in a lot of ways -- but over the first 17 seasons of his career played less than 152 games 6 times (143, 148, 147, 99, 149, 117). So, two seasons with significantly fewer games than Palmeiro ever had and several seasons with a reduced workload and (based on what I see online) periodic trips to the DL. He averages 149.5 games per year.
OTOH, here's Eddie Murray, who is one of the only other guys who hit 500 HR and 3000 hits:
Taking out the 1981 strike year, Murray averages 156.1 games over the prime of his career -- almost identical to Palmeiro. He literally has only one year under 150 games, 1986.
So Palmeiro played about 7 games more per year than Albert Pujols -- which is about 4% more of the schedule. That's about 22 more home runs to his total and 120 hits. But about the same amount as Eddie Murray.
Is it on the margins? For sure. All three guys were pretty healthy over the course of their long careers. But again: in Palmeiro's case never going a single time on the DL seems ... odd to me. Especially when the only time in his career that we *know* he wasn't on steroids--when he came back from his suspension--he immediately got hurt and went on the DL.
As for Ripken and others, I'm not on some quest to impugn the reputations of other players. That said, as I said in my quoted post above, I do think we have a warped understanding of steroid use due to the cliche of muscle-bound guys like McGwire using steroids. If players like Palmeiro were using PEDs to speed recovery, you have to ask yourself: wouldn't that have been particularly valuable to other players -- like, say, pitchers? We had some HOF pitchers in the 90's and 2000's who seemed to defy the laws of age to stay on the field, to say nothing of relievers who are treated as disposable by most teams and pitched into the ground. Of course, we don't have any evidence of those guys, so it's probably not anything we'll ever know for sure. But by not really exploring the "Recovery Time" side of steroid use in baseball and focusing instead on "Strength Building," the media effectively left people with the wrong impression of why people use them and, as a result, who was likely to be using them.
In the meantime tho, we know Palmeiro used them, how and why. And because the preponderance of his HOF case is counting stats and those stats are clearly tainted (he wouldn't have made 3,000 without appeal), I don't think he remotely deserves consideration.
(I'm putting aside what an incredibly sanctimonious asshole he was pointing his finger and lying to Congress because being an asshole is almost a qualification for this particular honor)