DALLAS _ The first thing you notice about Rafael Palmeiro is how well his body seems to have held up.
His body is lean. His baseball-playing sons, Patrick and Preston, tell him he has less body fat than they do. He's probably leaner than when he last played, which is saying something considering he is now 53 and he last played more than a decade ago.
The second thing you notice: His eyes.
Inside a Colleyville Starbucks, on the way to a workout for a comeback to baseball that would be, to put it mildly, unprecedented, Palmeiro spends two hours breaking down the current Rangers, how he can still help a team, how much he'd like to do it in Texas, how badly he says he was hurt and isolated by his 2005 failed steroid test and his life since. The whole time, his eyes dart from one end of the room to the other as if searching for something.
What is he searching for after all these years, I wonder. A friend? A chance? Closure? His career? A reset on his Hall of Fame candidacy? All of them, maybe?
"I just know that I want to compete at the highest level, to contribute to a team and to contribute in other areas as well," Palmeiro says. "I believe I have a lot to offer. I don't know what it will do for my career, but how much more can my career be damaged at this point? I'm not sure there is much more for me to lose. But I do think there is something to be gained and not just for myself. I believe it could be a win-win."
Within a few moments, Palmeiro is talking about how much better he feels than he did when he was 35. He is talking about hitting 30 home runs again. He is talking about a comeback not as a part-timer or even as a DH, but as a first baseman. And for Palmeiro, the ideal other half of this win-win situation would be the Rangers.
That is where this long shot hits its first obstacle. Though there are those who believe Palmeiro has something to offer baseball, the obstacles far outnumber the opportunity to play.
