King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Can a borderline Hall of Famer make it to Cooperstown after a career spent in baseball backwaters? New Marlin Carlos Delgado had better hope so.

Read more: Sports, Baseball, News, Salon News, King Kaufman, Sports Daily

Jan. 27, 2005 | Slugging first baseman Carlos Delgado signed a four-year, $52 million contract with the Marlins this week. Most of the talk about the deal has centered on what his choosing Florida over the Mets means in the National League East race. My take: Who can tell about these things?

But my first thought was that by signing with the Marlins, Delgado dealt a body blow to his own chances to make the Hall of Fame. He's going to have to be a better player in Miami over the next few years than he would have had to have been in New York, or even in Baltimore, which also wanted him, to make it to Cooperstown.

You might be thinking: Carlos Delgado? Cooperstown? Especially if you don't live in Toronto, where Delgado has spent his entire career, you probably think of him as a next-level-down kind of guy, maybe a borderline case.

A borderline case is just what he is. I'll show you what I mean in a second, and unless you like digging around in this sort of thing like I sometimes do you'll say, "Wow, it really does get slow in the dead week before Super Bowl hype really kicks in." Those of you who prefer columns like yesterday's might feel more comfortable clicking over to today's New York Times, and I'll hope to see you again tomorrow.

Borderline Hall of Fame cases benefit greatly from playing for glamour teams in big markets. Playing for championship teams helps, but perhaps not as much as playing in a media center. If you don't believe me, consider Ryne Sandberg, who just got elected to the Hall after missing out in his first two votes, and the very similar Lou Whitaker, who in his first year on the ballot didn't even garner the 5 percent vote necessary to stay on it.

Sandberg spent his entire career with the Cubs, where he played on two playoff losers. Whitaker spent his entire career with the Tigers, where he played on a World Series winner and a playoff loser. But Whitaker played on six other teams that finished second or third. Sandberg none.

Sandberg was arguably a slightly better player, especially considering his defense, which Hall of Fame voters -- baseball writers -- tend not to do unless a player's defense is beyond astounding. But not so much better that he should get a plaque while Whitaker gets roughly the same consideration as Chili Davis -- who wasn't anything like a Hall of Famer but got a few votes after having spent some time in New York and Anaheim.

I think that if Sandberg had been a Tiger and Whitaker a Cub, things would have been very different for them, Hall of Fame wise.

So that brings us to Delgado, who has played his entire career in the baseball backwater of Toronto. He had a one-at-bat cup of coffee with the '93 champion Blue Jays, but didn't stick until 1996, the third of four consecutive losing seasons. Toronto has never finished higher than third in a five-team division with Delgado at first base.

Next page: Robin Yount went from a low-wattage city to Cooperstown, but it ain't easy