Rangers' Rafael Palmeiro Records Hit 2,000

On May 2, 1999, Texas Rangers first baseman Rafael Palmeiro gets his 2,000 hit of his career. He would end his career with 3,020 hits.

Palmeiro getting his 2,000th MLB hit.

Palmeiro would finish his career with two marks, which used to be an automatic bid into Cooperstown’s Baseball Hall of Fame; he hit over 500 home runs, finishing his career with 569 and marked over 3,000 hits.

On top of that he had 1,835 RBI’s and a career batting average of .288 going along with two Silver Slugger Awards in 1998 and 1999, three Gold Glove Awards in 1997, 1998 and 1999 and was a four-time All-Star selection in 1988, 1991, 1998 and 1999.

Palmeiro was inducted into the Mississippi State University Hall of Fame on October 11, 2008. 

In 2009, he was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame.

Despite his qualifications to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, Palmeiro was in the middle of the Mitchell Investigation that put baseball at the forefront of steroid use in the last 1990s and early 2000s. During the congressional hearings Palmeiro lied in court and said he did not do steroids, something he later admitted to doing.

With that Palmeiro’s numbers are now tainted and he will likely not be elected into the Hall of Fame because of the controversy surrounding his name and steroid use.

 

Palmeiro as a member of the Baltimore Orioles.

Palmeiro became eligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011. He received 64 votes, or 11.0 percent of total ballots cast; the threshold for entry is 75 percent.

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 many believe because he was suspended in 2005 after testing positive for steroid use, that was the reason why he only 11 percent of the vote."