Congratulations Mr. Palmeiro, you won't be spending any amount of time behind bars, serving as a lover to some oversized man that other inmates affectionately refer to as "The Tank."

Now get up, walk away and disappear. Go spend the rest of your life with your wife and kids in one of your mansions and leave the sports society alone. Don't try to come back and embarrass yourself and America's pastime. Nobody wants you stepping into the batter's box anymore.

You successfully managed to cheat yourself, major league baseball and its traditions, your teams and most importantly-- your fans.

The problem with steroids being used by major leaguers isn't what it could do to their bodies and their health later on in life. Already, Ken Caminiti, a former All-Star, died due to the suspected effects of steroids. Forgive baseball fans outside of Houston and San Diego for not shedding a tear. Why should anyone have sympathy or compassion for grown men who are well aware of the risks that come along with injecting their bodies with performance enhancing drugs.

The problem is much, much bigger than that. It's about the damage that using steroids does to the mental psyche of the baseball fan. Growing up, children and their father's watch baseball because they admire how easy the players can make it look to hit a ball 400 feet. Their talent and level of hand-eye coordination makes them elite.

But once steroids is found to have been involved, the player's career dies faster than the goldfish a child wins at the local carnival. It's completely possible that this was the first--and only-- time Palmeiro took steroids, but nobody will ever know. And after he sat before congress and waved his finger in defiance towards the notion that he had taken them, why should we ever believe him?

Growing up playing baseball for the first 16 years of my life, I admired baseball players for different reasons. Palmeiro was no exception. On a wall of my room, I have a collage of photos detailing the batting stances and swings of different players. Palmeiro was front and center as I regarded him to have the most pure and sweet swing in the league.

The man was a live textbook of the fundamental baseball swing. His head stayed firmly planted on the ball throughout the entire swing, the balance in his legs was uncanny and oh, that swing-- that swing was so fast, so pure, so effortless-- no wonder why opposing pitchers would shake in fear when he'd step to the plate. That swing allowed him to be one of the most consistent hitters of the era and a rare member of the 3,000 hit-500 homerun club.

It's entirely possible that Palmeiro is telling the truth now. That he only took them once. Heck, it would even make perfect sense for a 41-year-old to try something so drastic just to continue playing the game he loves. Then again, it's entirely possible that he had been taking them throughout his entire career and that the steroids made the difference between having 469 career HR's (he has 569) and 685 doubles (he has 585).

We'll never know if Palmeiro took steroids just once and we'll never know what kind of role they played in turning him into an All-Star for over a decade. But it never should have come to this--mostly for his fans and the people who paid their hard earned money to watch him play.

Years of following a player's career and having nothing but respect were washed away the second the needle broke the skin and for all parties involved it's just a damn shame. I wish Palmeiro the best in the rest of his life, but again I beg of him, don't return to the baseball diamonds you have disgraced and don't hit anymore homeruns.

For each homerun you hit, Mr. Palmeiro, another innocent mind becomes a fan of yours. They pick up your jersey, want your autograph and collect your baseball cards. They just don't deserve the deep embedded pain in their heart that comes with being the fan of a steroid user.