His field career ended when he was shot in the back following his decision to intervene and apprehend the assailants in an altercation outside Campisi's, a Dallas Italian restaurant.

In 1978, he worked the Yankees' one-game playoff against the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park to determine the AL's Eastern Division winner.

Palermo, serving as the third base umpire, signaled "fair ball" when Bucky Dent hit the game-changing home run.

Palermo was one of the umpires who caught Minnesota Twin pitcher Joe Niekro in the act of scuffing a baseball on August 3, 1987, in a game at Anaheim Stadium.

Jim Palmer, Hall of Fame Oriole pitcher, remembered that Weaver "second-, third-, and fourth-guessed every call Steve Palermo ever made in his whole career, which, by the law of averages seems a little harsh, since he had a one out of two chance on every pitch.

"[3] On July 7, 1991, he and several friends, including fellow umpire Rich Garcia, were dining at Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant in Dallas after working a Texas Rangers game when they were alerted that two waitresses were being mugged in the parking lot.

In an attempt to apprehend the assailants, he suffered a bullet wound to his spinal cord, resulting in instant paralysis from the waist down.