Baseball Badness

Spring Training is only a mere three months away, but we can turn our attention to the national pastime thanks in part to guys like former stud reliever Jeff Reardon and juice monkey Rafael Palmeiro. If you’ve been living in a cave for the past day, or you failed to pay your cable bill, Reardon was arrested on Monday for knocking off a jewelry store in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Reardon walked into Hamilton Jewelers at the Gardens Mall on Monday and handed an employee a note saying he had a gun and the store was being robbed, police said. The 50-year old former pitcher, who ranks sixth all time in saves, was picked up by police at a nearby restaurant. An undisclosed amount of cash was recovered, but no weapon was found on Reardon.

Reardon's attorney, Mitchell Beers, said the former pitcher had a 20-year-old son who died of a drug overdose in February 2004, which has been "very difficult for him and his family," and has been on medication for depression. Reardon, who is married and has two other children, also underwent heart angioplasty last week and has been taking medication for that.

It’s not clear if Reardon was suffering from financial issues. He earned over $11 million during a major league career spent playing for the New York Mets, Montreal Expos, Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees.

Palmeiro broke his silence on his steroid suspension in a New York Times interview published on Wednesday. Palmeiro doesn’t fess up, but he does admit to being "careless, stupid and naive." He does however continue to point the finger at Miguel Tejada.

"I wish I could pinpoint exactly what happened," said Palmeiro. "I would think it was the B-12. I'm not certain of that, I can't prove it."

The B-12 he’s referring to is the liquid vitamin that he received from Tejada while the two played together in Baltimore.

"I wish I could have turned in the vial for testing," Palmeiro. "But when I found out, it was long gone and I couldn't come up with it. If something happened that I'm not aware of, an intentional act by someone else, I don't know. I can't rule out anything."

Palmeiro may not have broken any code for cheating, but he certainly did by ratting on Tejada. Had the two opposed each other in an upcoming game, Tejada may have lobbied to pitch for an inning to deal with the situation.