Sammy Sosa busted with a corked bat...

[Kruzin]

One of the MLBs heroes, a man who holds several home run records, Sammy Sosa was ejected from a game the other day when his bat broke, and it was found that the bat was corked.
Sammy claims he 'accidentaly' grabbed the wrong bat, and that was one he normally only used for batting practice, to put on a show for those who came early to watch pre-game warm-ups.
The MLB siezed over 70 of his bats from the dugout for examination, and all where clean (not corked).

Now Sammy is being doubted for his home run records, with fans wondering just how many of those runs where scored by 'cheating'.
It's a shame to see a sports hero's records, and integrity brought into question. So many people that cheered for him over the years are now wondering if they where taken.

The question is, did he really just grab this one illegal bat by mistake...or does he 'cheat' on a regular basis?

[The PIT]

Who cares nearly all sportsmen cheat anyway.

[Kruzin]

Who cares?
Several million US baseball fans.
I realize UKers don't care any more about baseball than we do about cricket...but there are plenty here who care. This has been a HUGE news story for sports fans in the US...

[KvHagedorn]

This is sad.. you could wonder the same thing about Barry Bonds or Mark McGuire.. Sosa was generally thought to be one of the few "good guys" in sports, too.

[az]

I'm with Gurm on this one

AZ

[Slougi]

I agree with the girl in Kv's avatar

[Brian Ellis]

I say, Carruthers, cheatin' isn't cricket, what?

[Jammrock]

MLB x-rayed his other 76 bats and found no cork in any other bat. Sammy says that's the bat he uses for warm-ups so he can hit more dingers to make fans happy.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt... he's big enough and has a good enough swing that he doesn't need a corked bat.

Jammrock

[Gurm]

Yah. If all the other ones were clean...

And if you're paranoid, have an independent check all his bats before his next few games and see how well he does.

Still hits homers? Forget about it.

Besides, the fact that he BROKE it pretty much indicates that he wasn't really intending to use that bat, and hit WAY too hard, huh?

- Gurm

[dshumake]

Robert Adair, who wrote the book "The Physics of Baseball", states that a corked bat would only yield an average of 15 cm (6 inches) on a 370 foot hit from a fastball. The same advantage can be gotten, legally, by choking up on the bat ~ 2 cm, or shaving the end of the bat off. Therefore, the 15 cm is due to the faster swing from a lighter bat. If the batter's timing is off, the faster swing could result in a better batting average.

Additionally, in an NPR interview he said that using a corked bat would reduce the length of the hit by 3 feet because the cork is to compressible.

So, using a corked bat doesn't help.

[Technoid]

Okay, could someone please, explaine for the "Don't know jack shit about Baseball"

[Gurm]

Baseball is a game in which some people with low IQ's throw a small round ball at high speeds at some OTHER people with low IQ's who try to hit that ball with a large wooden stick called a "bat". Then OTHER people with low IQ's try to catch the ball and tag the hitter with it before he runs a prescribed series of paths between safe points called "bases" (in the shape of a diamond) before coming back to the starting point "home plate".

The argument here is whether he was using a non-regulation "bat" on purpose in order to hit further. It is further complicated by the fact that he is one of the recent home-run record holders.

A "home run" is what happens when you hit the ball out of the field of play - thus rendering it unretrievable by the opposing team and allowing you a free, unobstructed revolution of the "bases".

- Gurm

[Kooldino]

LOL@Gurm. Why all the anger @ baseball?

*stretches for his softball game later today*

[MultimediaMan]

Gurm, I personally know three major league baseball players: One of them currently plays for the Colorado Rockies at First Base, and if you look at my name in my profile, you'll only need one guess to know which one after looking at the team's roster. The other two are out of the game; one was a Pitcher, the other a Third Baseman, and both are fine people, with college degrees in Physics, Chemistry and Philosophy. None of them are Low IQ. Please be more careful in your generalizations, because you have unwittingly brought family into the discussion.

The former pitcher is now a schoolteacher, because that's what he wanted to do before baseball, while the third baseman is a coach for the baseball team he formerly played for.

[The PIT]

It's called rounders in this country. When I was at school if you got bored you hit it onto the roof and you then got your whole team out with one shot