Looks like Sammy Sosa is taking some serious heat today for corking his bat. Yeah, there's a shocker.
Once Sammy Sosa was caught using a corked bat, there was one big question: Was he cheating when he hit any of those 505 home runs?
Gee, ya think?
I'm sure he's broken a lot of bats and this is the first time this has been found. Also, when he was in the Home Run Race the last few years, I doubt that he would have used a corked bat near the end as the bats themselves were valuable keepsakes and I'd think that you'd hate to hand over a corked bat to the Hall of Fame or a collector.
Can you imagine how badly that would have tainted those Home Run races had he been caught back then?
I think this incident probably was really just a mistake on Sammy's part. Maybe not.
It'd probably be a good idea to make a rule that only regulation equipment be allowed in possesion of the teams, just to make sure that this kind of mistake doesn't happen again, or if it does, that they don't have the mistake defense.
Re:It's possible, I suppose
pudge on 2003-06-06T12:05:21
It surely reflects poorly on Sammy, but in his favor, his explanation is reasonable ("I use a corked bat in warmups to give the fans a treat") and the x-rayed all 70-something of his other bats, turning up not one with cork in it.
Without additional evidence against Sammy, I'd be willing to let this go after his fine and (hopefully significant, like 10 games) suspension.Re:It's possible, I suppose
jordan on 2003-06-06T17:06:17
They've also x-rayed the 5 bats that Sammy had used that are in the Hall of Fame and these all came up corkless.
One thing against him is that he's currently experiencing a serious batting slump, coming back from a toe injury and a bad incident where he was struck by a pitch.
I see where they settled on an 8 game suspension. That seems about right to me.
