The Sunshine Rule

In his si.com column this week, Tom Verducci outlines a strong Hall of Fame case for long-time Blue Jay and current Met 1B Carlos Delgado. This blog also recently identified Delgado as a potentially strong Hall candidate (Feb. 9). Verducci’s piece is interesting especially because he’s looking for an unsung power hitter, untainted by performance-enhancing drugs, during the steroid era. The column includes an interview with Delgado, who talks about how he has stayed away from steroids both for health reasons and because he considers it cheating.

In the fallout from the A-Rod saga, I think more players who aspire to the Hall of Fame simply are going to have to sit down and agree to interviews about their careers – including the question of whether they used performance enhancers. The board of the Baseball Writers Association of America even could require an interview for all new candidates on the ballot. Players could opt out, of course. But in this environment, they’d do so at their own peril.