Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning you’ll get a fresh, topical column to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.
It should not be particularly surprising that MLB is, finally, close to a new set of rules for policing foreign substances. Sunday’s news from ESPN followed a detailed report here at SI on just how pervasive the issue has grown recently, which itself followed years of rumors, discussion, and controversy. A new mandate for umpires to check pitchers more frequently has been a long time coming.