Miguel Tejada, Rafael Palmeiro, and the 2005 Congressional Steroid Investigation / 2000s
Tejada became entangled in baseball’s steroid crisis after Baltimore Orioles teammate Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for steroids in 2005 and was suspended for 10 games. Palmeiro reportedly told an arbitration panel that a supplement supplied by Tejada might have caused the positive test. Tejada denied giving him any performance-enhancing substance, insisting that the only item he had provided was vitamin B-12. Baseball’s Health Policy Advisory Committee later exonerated Tejada in connection with that specific accusation and criticized the media for reporting that he had distributed steroids. The controversy intensified when José Canseco’s book Juiced suggested that Tejada may have used steroids, and when former pitcher Jason Grimsley allegedly named him as a steroid user during a federal investigation, although a later U.S. attorney said press reports about the affidavit contained significant inaccuracies. The 2007 Mitchell Report nevertheless stated that Tejada had received approximately $1,500 worth of steroids. The most consequential episode came when Tejada was questioned by a House committee in 2005 about what he knew regarding Palmeiro and steroid use. Federal prosecutors later charged him with lying to Congress, and on February 11, 2009, Tejada pleaded guilty to one count of perjury. He faced possible imprisonment and deportation but received one year of probation on March 26, 2009. The case damaged his reputation and contributed to his receiving less than five percent of the Hall of Fame vote in 2019, though the underlying allegation that he personally used steroids was never conclusively established in the source record.
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