Rafael Palmeiro Corrales (born September 24, 1964) is a Cuban-American former baseball first baseman and left fielder.

[1] Days after recording his 3,000th hit, Palmeiro received a 10-game suspension for testing positive for an anabolic steroid.

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 drafted as a compensation pick from the San Diego Padres, to whom the Cubs lost Tim Stoddard via free agency.

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.

[6] Palmeiro debuted on September 8, 1986, in a game between the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field, as a left fielder.

This led to issues in the locker room and after the 1988 season, 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.

Instead of getting a better deal, they signed Will Clark instead (for $30 million and five years), causing Palmeiro to call him a "low life", though he later apologized for saying that.

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.

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 won a Gold Glove for the second straight year along with his first Silver Slugger Award, while finishing 18th in MVP balloting.

[11][12][13] He finished 5th in the MVP balloting, having garnered a .324 batting average, 47 home runs, and 148 RBIs, all improvements from the previous season.

On May 11, 2003, Palmeiro hit his 500th home run off David Elder in a game against the Cleveland Indians.

[14] In 10 years with the team, he played in 1,573 games, garnering 1,692 hits, 321 home runs and 1,039 RBIs while compiling a .290 batting average.

Despite this, he became one of only six players (the other five being Ken Griffey Jr., Mark McGwire, Jimmie Foxx, Albert Pujols and Manny Ramírez) in history to hit at least 200 home runs for two different clubs, doing so on September 13, 2004, off Justin Miller.

Just a few weeks later, on July 15, Palmeiro joined Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Alex Rodriguez, and Eddie Murray as the only players in major league history to get 3,000 hits and 500 home runs.

[18] In his final season, he had 98 hits, 18 home runs, 60 RBIs and a .266 batting average in 110 total games played.

On May 9, 2018, it was announced that Palmeiro and his son Patrick signed with the Cleburne Railroaders of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball.

[22] He finished the season with a .301 batting average, 6 home runs, and 22 RBIs despite being limited to only 31 games due to injuries.

[23] On May 15, the Railroaders released the pair, stating that Rafael was not fully healthy and would not be able to play a full season after undergoing knee surgery earlier in the year.

According to Barry M. Bloom on Major League Baseball's official website: "Palmeiro should have been a sure-fire first-ballot inductee, as a member of the 500-homer, 3,000-hit club, but was suspended in 2005 after testing positive for steroid use.

[30] Former Rangers teammate José Canseco identified Palmeiro as a fellow steroid user in his 2005 book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big, and claimed he personally injected Palmeiro with steroids.

Ultimately, although I never intentionally put a banned substance into my body, the independent arbitrator ruled that I had to be suspended under the terms of the program.

Coincidentally, this was the date that had been planned as "Rafael Palmeiro Appreciation Day" in celebration of his 500-home run, 3,000-hit milestone.

[38] The Baltimore Sun reported that Palmeiro never offered an explanation for his positive test to the MLB arbitration panel, which ran contrary to his public statements.

[42] Palmeiro continues to strongly deny ever having used steroids intentionally, telling The Baltimore Sun in June 2006, "Yes sir, that's what happened.

"[43] Palmeiro passed a polygraph test in which he was not asked if he ever used steroids, but in which he did state that he unknowingly ingested them via a B12 injection.

The report did not provide any new evidence and only recapped allegations made by José Canseco, Palmeiro's appearance before Congress, and his subsequent failed drug test.

"[46] On December 20, 2007, Palmeiro was also named in Jason Grimsley's unsealed affidavit as a user of amphetamines prior to their being banned by MLB.

[48] His son Patrick played college baseball at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and in the Chicago White Sox organization.