still closed

His numbers improved (a little), but former Mississippi State standout Rafael Palmeiro is still locked out of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Palmeiro, whose otherwise stellar career was tainted by a failed drug test near the end, was named today on 13 percent of the writers’ ballots. That’s up from 11 percent last year in his first time on the ballot. It takes 75 percent to make the Hall; former Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin was the only player to make the cut this year. Palmeiro topped 500 home runs and 3,000 hits, Hall of Fame numbers, to be sure. But the suspicion about how much those numbers were boosted by illegal performance enhancing drugs may be too much for Palmeiro to ever overcome.
P.S. Former Bulldogs left-hander Paul Maholm reportedly is close to signing with the Chicago Cubs, a team he pitched against many times as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Maholm is 53-73 with a 4.36 ERA for his career, all of which had been spent with the lowly Bucs. He would be a good No. 4 or 5 starter for the rebuilding Cubs.