In 1997 Rafael Palmeiro was in the prime of what would surely become a Hall of Fame career having rattled off three 30 home run seasons plus clubbing 23 in the strike-shortened 1994 season. A perrennial .300 hitter Palmeiro would proceed to hit 38 or more home runs and drive in 100 runs in nine consecutive seasons between 1995 and 2003 playing for the Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers. Unfortunately though in 2005 Palmeiro stood before a Congressional hearing on steroids in baseball and stated "Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids period. I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never." Five months later Palmeiro was suspended for testing positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol. Palmeiro continued to deny using steroids blaming his teammate Miguel Tejada for providing him with a vitamin B12 supplement that was tainted. Palmeiro later was named in the Mitchell Report as having asked about steroids and HGH and was named by Jason Grimsley as being a user of banned amphetamines. Though Palmeiro has continued to deny ever using performance enhancing substances his reputation has suffered his chances at being inducted into the Hall of Fame by the baseball writers destroyed. Presented here is what could have been a Hall of Famer's game-used bat from the prime of his career a Young model Y48 ordered by Palmeiro during the 1997 season. Showing outstanding signs of use the 34" ash bat weighs in at 31.4 ounces and eshibits a handle crack. It has been assigned a grade of GU 9.5 by John Taube of PSA/DNA. From the collection of Ted Patterson who quite likely obtained the bat directly from Palmeiro.