Rafael Palmeiro is sticking to his story: He has never used steroids. Period. He doesn’t know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never. Never knowingly, at least.

In a Friday interview with ESPN’s Pedro Gomez, upon his induction into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, Palmeiro remained steadfast that, yes, he was injected by a teammate with a B-12 vitamin but that it must have been tainted, in turn producing his positive test for performance enhancing drugs that derailed his certain road to Cooperstown to one of disgrace.

“I made a mistake,” Palmeiro said. “I didn’t really understand what I was taking and I paid for it. I paid for it very dearly. Life goes on.”

Palmeiro went on to say, “I’ve heard a lot of things out there that are wrong. People saying I took drugs all my life, I’ve never touched anything. I worked my butt off my whole career, as a kid, in college, the big leagues, I didn't need anything, I didn’t have to cheat at the end of my career, for what? What was I going to gain from it? Whatever I took was tainted, had to have been. There's no other reason unless I got set up.

“What I took was a B-12 that was given to me by a teammate. That’s it. That was it.”

That teammate, of course, was allegedly former Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada, who also claimed to the ends of the earth that he had never used PEDs — until February, of course, when he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about it. Similar charges, by the way, were not brought against Palmeiro. Or haven’t been yet, anyway.

Frankly, there was always a little something in me that wanted to believe Palmeiro. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem believing PEDs were used by any athlete in professional sports, including Palmeiro, but for some reason the story didn’t quite fit in my mind with him. Then when the not so surprising news about Tejada broke (people inside the Orioles clubhouse said unless he was on the field, you never saw Tejada without his “B-12” briefcase), it provided cause for even more wonder.

Neither is it so surprising that so few are buying Raffy’s claim. “Why would he continue to deny he knowingly used PEDs?” the cynics wonder. “Look how the public accepted Andy Pettite’s acknowledgement and apology. Not to mention the way Manny Ramirez is being accepted now that he’s back.”

Which is precisely what keeps me wondering. Why, four years later, would Palmeiro continue this ardent denial, unless he really didn’t knowingly use performance enhancing drugs?

Palmeiro tested positive for the same substance Jose Canseco said he used when the two were teammates in Texas, but it’s safe to say most of the players who tested positive were using the same thing. At the same time, Canseco seems to have been on the mark with every accusation he’s made, which in itself makes this story even more surreal.

There likely will never be any way Palmeiro will be able to prove his innocence, and, admittedly, that’s likely because he was guilty as charged. Of all of the disgraced ballplayers in this steroids era, though, he is the one I’m not 100 percent sure really was.

Mother’s Day revisited

And speaking of more surreal moments in Orioles history, the Birds once again proved on Wednesday afternoon they can be a great cure for fun, turning a 5-1 ninth-inning lead into a 6-5 extra-inning loss to the Boston Red Sox. There’s nothing like a complete bullpen meltdown like that one to make you forget one of the most memorable victories in club history, which took place roughly 17 hours beforehand, when the O’s turned a 10-1 eighth-inning deficit into an 11-10 win over Boston to produce the greatest comeback in franchise history.

From the moment the ninth inning began, you could feel that game getting away from the Orioles: Jim Johnson’s walk of the leadoff batter, the two-run home run by Kevin Youkilis, the complete and utter failure of closer George Sherrill after he had been lights out in his previous 13 appearances.

The only thing that was missing from this one that didn’t make it a complete replica of the 2007 Mother’s Day Massacre that took place in Fenway Park, was a dropped pop-up by the catcher. Fortunately Ramon Hernandez’s lazy arse is nowhere to be seen in these parts, but for good measure, Dannys Baez did come in to give up the winning run. It was Baez, of course, who former manager Sam Perlozzo was unmercifully grilled for bringing into the game to begin the ninth inning that Mother’s Day, so seeing him give up the winning run did manage to rekindle some fond memories the same way “The Exorcist,” “Midnight Cowboy,” or even “Deliverance” always do.

Should Orioles manager Denny Crane be viewed as Public Enemy No. 1 for lifting rookie starter Brad Bergesen after eight shutdown innings the way Perlozzo was identified as the Lindbergh baby kidnapper for pulling rookie starter Jeremy Guthrie that fateful Mother’s Day? The only reason I would say yes is because of the way the bullpen had just been used less than 24 hours prior, but for the most part the Orioles manager (actually named Dave Trembley) played it by the book and made the right move — with Johnson, and with Sherrill.

The real culprit here, of course, was the Boston Red Sox. Regrettably, they’re just that good.

Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.