Thursday, August 25, 2005
He said his achievements should be wiped from the record books.
BOSTON (AP) -- Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling said Wednesday that Rafael Palmeiro has "no credibility" to talk about steroids, and the Baltimore slugger's achievements should be wiped from baseball's record books.
In an interview with Boston radio station WEEI on Wednesday, Schilling recalled that he and Palmeiro sat together in March when both testified before Congress.
Palmeiro denied taking steroids at the time, but was given a 10-day suspension Aug. 1 after failing a drug test.
"He obviously sat next to me in Washington and lied," Schilling said. "I don't know that there's any way to prove that anything he did was not under the influence of performance-enhancing drugs."
Palmeiro had 3,020 hits and 569 homers going into Baltimore's game against the Angels on Wednesday.
Agrees with Robbie
Schilling's remarks echo those made by Washington Nationals manager Frank Robinson, who hit 568 homers in his Hall of Fame career.
Schilling, who is scheduled to return to the Red Sox rotation Thursday night against the Kansas City Royals after filling in as the closer, said earlier drug scandals took away his idealism about baseball.
"I just kind of got to the point where I finally realized that liars and cheaters and criminals exist in all professions," he said. "Baseball doesn't absolve us from being human beings."
Schilling also said he would have nothing to say to Palmeiro when Boston and Baltimore meet Sept. 2-4 for a series at Fenway.
"I've never played with him," he said.
"I'm not his teammate. My hope is that Raffy does whatever he can possibly do in his position to help further the message that Major League Baseball needs to send to kids, to people.
"Whether he's going to be able to do that, given what he's done, to me, doubtful," Schilling said.
"He has no credibility, I don't think, in that area. It's going to be tough. I just hope his life gets righted and he does the right thing."
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