Ken Caminiti Marquee

In 1996 he hit 40 home runs, drove in 130 and batted .326 for San Diego, and every one of the twenty-eight writers put him first on the ballot. He won the Gold Glove at third base in each of the three seasons around it.

In a Sports Illustrated interview in 2002 he said he had used anabolic steroids in the 1996 season and estimated that half the players in the game were using something. It was the first such statement from a player of that standing, and it changed the terms of a conversation that ran for the next decade.

Fifteen seasons gave him 1,710 hits, 239 home runs, 983 runs batted in and a .272 average, with three All-Star selections. He was an alcoholic and a cocaine user, said so, and did not get free of it. He died of an overdose in the Bronx in October 2004, at forty-one. The 2007 ballot gave him two votes of 545.