Palmeiro receives 10-day suspension for steroids

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2005

BALTIMORE, United States (AFP) — Rafael Palmeiro, one of several players who testified before US lawmakers that he had never taken steroids, received a 10-day suspension for violating Major League Baseball's steroids policy.

The 40-year-old Baltimore Orioles slugger told a US House Government Reform Committee looking into steroids in baseball that he "never used steroids - period".

But the Cuban-born first baseman is the seventh player and first star to receive a steroid ban under a new policy agreed upon by owners and the players union earlier this year, one that was harshly criticized by the US Congress.

Palmeiro became only the fourth player in Major League Baseball history with 3,000 career hits and 500 career home runs on July 15, putting himself...