CHICAGO (AP) -- Chicago Cubs star Sammy Sosa was ejected in the first inning of Tuesday night's game against Tampa Bay right when umpires found cork in his shattered bat.
The Cubs had runners at second and third when Sosa broke his bat with a grounder to second that at first appeared to drive in a run.
But crew chief Tim McClelland gathered with the other three umpires to examine the bat. Cubs manager Dusty Baker came out and the umpires showed the bat to him.
Mark Grudzielanek was sent back to third base, the run was wiped off the board and Sosa was ejected as he stood in the dugout.
Sosa says he uses corked bats in exhibitions for whatever reasons, and he got one mixed up before this game. The cynics will and say "Pfeh, likely," but I'm inclined to believe him. For one, it's well-documented that he swings the heaviest bat in the league, which would suggest that it's not ordinarily corked.
McClelland, by the way, was the home plate umpire during the Pine Tar Incident, and I believe he may have also been umping the game where Albert Belle was discovered using a corked bat.
Billy Hatcher was coaching for the D-Rays this game. He was involved in a famous incident where his bat exploded and cork was discovered. His claim to innocence was that he was set up...I don't remember the exact details, but he was facing the Cubs and I think he claimed he got the bat from a Cub coach. Funny stuff.
I dont know much about and frankly nor do I really care...but I am tired of hearing about it! Its been all over the news the whole night! National and local!!!
I believe him. He says he uses it in batting practice and he just grabbed the wrong bat. Corking a bat doesn't help all that much anyways. It's not like if Sosa's bat wasn't corked, that 450 feet homerun he hit wouldn't have left the park.
quote:Originally posted by THE Franta: I dont know much about and frankly nor do I really care...but I am tired of hearing about it! Its been all over the news the whole night! National and local!!!
Franta proclaiming how much he doesn't care about sports, that's new.
quote:Originally posted by Kristogar Velo: Sosa says he uses corked bats in exhibitions for whatever reasons. it's well-documented that he swings the heaviest bat in the league
You make an excellent point, he should have easily noticed the difference in bat weight. Cork weighs virtuall nothing so he should have noticed as soon as he picked it up.
It's a shame he's teaching children cheating is proper sportsman ship. Oh well now we know how he kept up with Macguire.....
quote:Originally posted by THE Franta: I dont know much about and frankly nor do I really care...but I am tired of hearing about it! Its been all over the news the whole night! National and local!!!
Franta proclaiming how much he doesn't care about sports, that's new.
No I am proclaiming how petty the media and the public are. With everything else going on in the world we need to worry about this?
quote:Originally posted by britneyspearsatemyshorts: You make an excellent point, he should have easily noticed the difference in bat weight. Cork weighs virtuall nothing so he should have noticed as soon as he picked it up.
It's a shame he's teaching children cheating is proper sportsman ship. Oh well now we know how he kept up with Macguire.....
...wait, do you believe that his bat usually weighs heavier and he should've realized it was lighter this one time, or that he's used a corked bat all along to have a great career?
He has obviously been cheating for several years,I cant believe he could go from sightly better than average to a super slugger. Of course theres also his rampant steroid abuse.
Corking your bat only takes off about an ounce or so, so it's very likely that he didn't notice the difference. They took a lot of bats from the cubs clubhouse that they're going to check-if they took Sosa's bats, and they're going to check all of them. If half of them are corked, then it hurts his image and his legacy a great deal. If none are, then I think he's ok.
They had numbers on sportscenter about this the other night. Corking your bat increases your bat speed by 1.1 mph. Meaning that if you hit a homerun 40o feet with a regular bat, that same homerun would be 404 feet with a corked bat. Not a huge difference. That doesn't make it ok, but I still believe it was an honest mistake.
i was agreeing with you, that there would be a noticable difference between a bat as heavy as he is sposed to use and a corked bat. so he had to know it was a lot lighter.
quote:Originally posted by theJoker: Corking your bat only takes off about an ounce or so, so it's very likely that he didn't notice the difference. They took a lot of bats from the cubs clubhouse that they're going to check-if they took Sosa's bats, and they're going to check all of them. If half of them are corked, then it hurts his image and his legacy a great deal. If none are, then I think he's ok.
They had numbers on sportscenter about this the other night. Corking your bat increases your bat speed by 1.1 mph. Meaning that if you hit a homerun 40o feet with a regular bat, that same homerun would be 404 feet with a corked bat. Not a huge difference. That doesn't make it ok, but I still believe it was an honest mistake.
quote:Originally posted by Drzsmith: He has obviously been cheating for several years,I cant believe he could go from sightly better than average to a super slugger. Of course theres also his rampant steroid abuse.
the steroids bothers me worse than the cork, i mean he's just advocating cheating with the cork, but his steroid abuse could lead children to do the same.....
quote:Originally posted by theJoker: Corking your bat only takes off about an ounce or so, so it's very likely that he didn't notice the difference. They took a lot of bats from the cubs clubhouse that they're going to check-if they took Sosa's bats, and they're going to check all of them. If half of them are corked, then it hurts his image and his legacy a great deal. If none are, then I think he's ok.
They had numbers on sportscenter about this the other night. Corking your bat increases your bat speed by 1.1 mph. Meaning that if you hit a homerun 40o feet with a regular bat, that same homerun would be 404 feet with a corked bat. Not a huge difference. That doesn't make it ok, but I still believe it was an honest mistake.
Youre just helping to enable this million dollar crybaby.
They had numbers on sportscenter about this the other night. Corking your bat increases your bat speed by 1.1 mph. Meaning that if you hit a homerun 40o feet with a regular bat, that same homerun would be 404 feet with a corked bat. Not a huge difference. That doesn't make it ok, but I still believe it was an honest mistake.
so he uses corked bats for exibitions for an extra 4 feet? that doesnt seem to be worth the trouble?
quote:Originally posted by Franta: No I am proclaiming how petty the media and the public are. With everything else going on in the world we need to worry about this?
Then why don't you whine about this in the media forum, where it's more relevant? Gob can correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that the intent of this forum was to talk about the news in sports, not about how insignificant it is or should be.
quote:Originally posted by britneyspearsatemyshorts: i was agreeing with you, that there would be a noticable difference between a bat as heavy as he is sposed to use and a corked bat. so he had to know it was a lot lighter.
You contradicted yourself when you said that he kept up with McGwire by using a corked bat.
quote:Originally posted by Drzsmith: He has obviously been cheating for several years,I cant believe he could go from sightly better than average to a super slugger. Of course theres also his rampant steroid abuse.
I suppose changing his batting stance, improving his swing and not going after so many bad pitches is "cheating." If you actually watched his games you would've clearly seen how he improved over the years. Sure he bulked up(which you can't confirm was steroids...he says he has no problem being tested if that becomes standard practice, make of that what you wish), but that wasn't as big a part of it as you seem to think. To be honest, I'm not sure why he did that, because when he was a scrawny teenager he was a highly touted prospect 'cause he could hit the ball a mile.
quote:Youre just helping to enable this million dollar crybaby.
Aww...you wish you were good enough at something to be a millionaire, don't you?
Everything TheJoker said, about how cork only improves a home run drive a few feet, has been proven and is accepted as fact by knowledgable baseball people, which, contrary to nobody's belief, doesn't include you.
This was just the first time he got *caught* using a corked bat kiddies...I'm sure he never stepped up to the plate with a corked bat before yesterday.
What a coincidence! First time he ever cheated, I mean accidentally used the wrong bat, and it broke! What are the chances of that?
quote:Originally posted by Kristogar Velo: Another point to be made is that Sammy's broken dozens of bats before and not one of them was found to be illegally tampered with.
quote:Originally posted by Kristogar Velo: Everything TheJoker said, about how cork only improves a home run drive a few feet, has been proven and is accepted as fact by knowledgable baseball people, which, contrary to nobody's belief, doesn't include you.
If this is true then why does he cork it for exhibitions?
quote:Originally posted by britneyspearsatemyshorts: If this is true then why does he cork it for exhibitions?
Beats the hell outta me. Maybe he doesn't realize the effect is so small?
quote:Originally posted by MisterJLA: But when was the last time that happened?
Possibly earlier this year, he breaks bats I think more often than anyone else. But I don't exactly know where I can find game stats on broken bats so you might just have to take my word for it...
Anyway, even corking a bat to impress people during batting practice is just silly. Doesn't he have enough faith in his ability to hit 50 MPH "fastballs" throw down the middle?
quote:Sosa's 76 other bats found to be cork-free June 4, 2003 SportsLine.com wire reports
CHICAGO -- Sammy Sosa's 76 bats confiscated by baseball officials showed no signs of cork in X-rays taken the day after he was ejected for using a corked bat in a game.
The bats were taken from the Chicago Cubs' locker room during the game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Tuesday night. Cork was found in Sosa's bat when it shattered after he grounded out in the first inning of the Cubs' 3-2 victory.
"The bats were clean and had no foriegn substances in them," said Sandy Alderson, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office. "That is consistent with Sammy's explanation of the incident last night."
Sosa said he accidentally pulled out a bat he uses to put on home run displays for fans in batting practice. He has had dozens of bats break in the past few years with nothing suspicious found.
He was in the lineup for Wednesday night's game against Tampa Bay.
"I stood up yesterday like a man and took the blame," Sosa said. "But the media today, they've got me up there like I'm a criminal."
Sosa could face a suspension of up to 10 games, but Alderson said the decision will be made by Bob Watson, baseball's vice president in charge of discipline.
Watson was expected to arrive in Chicago by Thursday morning and will conduct interviews at the ballpark.
Alderson said commissioner Bud Selig was "very concerned."
"He has strong personal affection for Sammy," Alderson said. "At the same time, he instructed his office to conduct a thorough investigation."
Joe Morgan just told a good story(!) on ESPN, that he once used a corked bat by accident. He didn't notice the difference until after he hit the ball. Had it broken, he'd have been labeled as a cheater for life with everybody saying how unlikely it was that he used a corked bat only once.
I believe it was an honest mistake. I mean, they've cut open those 76 and there is other stories too.
Like his 498th homerun bat... the dumbasses he gave it to sawed it open and found nothing. The 66th was x-rayed by the restaurant that owns it, they found nothing.
They've checked 77 of Sosa's clubhouse bats, in addition to 5 enshrined at the Hall of Fame, a bat at Harry's restaurant, and several bats in the possession of collectors(the one used to hit #498, which went 438 feet, was cut open on live TV), and so far none have been found to have cork inside.
It's extremely unlikely that Sammy Sosa has used corked bats with any regularity. He's a premiere power hitter, he's broken hundreds of bats in his career. Every pitcher in the NL knows to pitch him inside, to jam him. That's how you break bats. The chances of him getting away with that, with his style of hitting, and his reputation, is really really really really slim.
So, I don't believe he's used corked bats in a game before. Whether or not he intended to use one in that particular game, I'm not sure. He's always been considered one of the game's nicest and most amiable ambassadors, so, despite the pessimist in me, I'm inclined to lean towards believing him, just slightly.
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and say "Pfeh, likely," but I'm inclined to believe him. For one, it's well-documented that he swings the heaviest bat in the league, which would suggest that it's not ordinarily corked.
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You ARE Jack, aren't you!
