Sammy Sosa and his corked bat...

[prodigal]

problems with pro baseball

I played baseball in high school, won trophies and was a bb fanatic until a few years ago when I became disillusioned with the sport like so many others due to the whining of the overpaid babies.
But my son is now playing T-ball for the first time and is discovering baseball; so we watch the Braves together a lot and it has relit the fire for me somewhat. Thanks son. Shame on Sosa.
GO BRAVES!

 

[TDTURBO]

I was born and raised in Chicago, still live there, I think the Cubs suck. I would rather watch a can rust then watch a group of pathetic overpaid athletic wannabees they call the Cubs play anything. Every time Sosa does his peace sign to his steroidaly deformed face I just want to punch it. Now he lies about grabbing the bat by accident....lol. As if he just grabs any 'ole bat before he's up to bat. Only a Cub fan would believe such non-sense. I hate baseball and this incident only makes its coverage worse, if it's not bad enough they air the games on tv, we have to listen to all the retards make up excuses why they suck. I can't wait for football.

BTW: When you see a plane towing a sign over Comisky when the Cubs are playing that reads "CORKY" you'll know who it is.

 

[DHPope93]

Listening to the Dan Patrick show, heard the theory that corked bats aren't needed for the physical act of hitting a ball farther (as referenced by Flying Illini), but for the mental aspect. Having a corked bat makes you feel more confident, and feeling more confident translates to better success at the plate. Since half of baseball is 99% mental, I can see some validity in the theory. I'm not particularly convinced of his pure innocence just cuz the other 76 bats were clean....just sounds like plausible deniability. If you're going to cheat, you're not going to want extra evidence around just in case you get caught.

Other than that, baseball's just a (poor) reason for me to watch ESPN between the NBA finals and NFL training camp. There's more wrong with baseball than just Sammy's corked bat.

Peace,
DP

P.S. I'd expected to see "If you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough" by now.

 

[dmspilot00]

half of baseball is 99% mental

Wouldn't that mean that baseball is 49.5% mental?

 

[PilotOnTheRise]

I don't know what to think, I am not a big baseball fan. Personally, however, I do not see how he did not know. There has to be a difference in weight that he should have noticed. Baseball seems to have athletes getting away with large amounts of things with steroids, etc and this will probably end up being forgotten as well.

 

[Smoking Man]

MLB

Thanks for the 94 world series!

 

[BRA]

Some points made on Jim Rome today:

-if you're gonna have a corked bat around the field on game day. You risk yourself and all your teammates possibly picking it up. If it was my bat i would paint that thing flourescent pink, and have the word CORK written on it.

-once he plays again...if his hitting streak continues to suck...everyone will wonder how long he was using the corked bat. If his hitting streak comes back.....everyone will wonder if he is still using a corked bat.

 

[Flying Illini]

First off, I love Jim Rome...I don't always agree with what he says but he rocks!

He accepted what happened, said he did in fact use it, and apologized for it.

Well he'd better accept what happened and admit to it...there were two pieces of evidence laying on the field after he hit. If he denied it I would say that he took too many steroids before the game! Of course he is going to apologize...he was caught red handed and the only way to save face is to be humble and apologetic. He is a master at making the people of Chicago forgive him...of course, the people of Chicago also have elected Daley to be the mayor...so that says alot right there about the people of Chicago. (I know I'll be flamed for that and just so you know, I have no problem with those of you who hate Daley and who aren't willing to forgive Sosa w/o giving any thought to it)

 

[Typhoon1244]

Baseball sucks.

Ditto.

(I wonder how many people decided "flying sucks" the first time they heard about an airline pilot showing up to work drunk...?)

 

[PacoPollo]

HIS Image is down the toilet.Cheater. Greedy a** motherf***er
Needs to go back to cut sugar canes in Dominican Rep.

 

[avbug]

What the heck is a corked bat (inebriated flying reptile)?

 

[Swass]

Actually it's a mammal .

Really, I don't see a whole lot of advantage of a corked bat, how much bat speed can be gained from the less weight? Does the cork offer much "spring"? The advantage of a corked bat may be greater for a smaller player, I wouldn't think a large power player would gain all that much. A homerun is a homerun, the distance is all a show.

 

[TurboS7]

The only advantage of a cork bat would be to be able to use it in BP hitting 30 balls and not get tired. As a power hitter you want to use as heavy as bat as possible and still maintain your maximum bat speed. Having all the muscles enables one to keep the bat speed and yet concentrate on hitting the sweet spot. It is pure physics. The reality is that a combined bat speed and ball speed of 120 MPH on the sweet spot will put the ball out 425 feet. A fast bat enables a hitter to muscle out a change up or slow curve. A moving fast ball is hard to hit, especially when it is touching the corners. It is done all the time but it takes an awesome amount of concentration to meet the ball at the right spot.

 

[Flying Illini]

If Sosa was actually sorry for what he did then he would not be appealing the 8 game suspension. The fact that he is appealing just proves that everything he has said so far is a front and he's not really sorry. He doesn't want to pay the penalty for cheating. Now he's just being a poor sport.

 

[Timebuilder]

The fact that he is appealing just proves that everything he has said so far is a front and he's not really sorry.

How does that follow?

It sounds as though he doesn't feel he should be punished in a way that would be consistent with intentionally using a corked bat. He contends it was an honest error, and I can see why he feels that the reaction is therefore too harsh.

 

[Swass]

Honest error or not, corked bats are against the rules. The managers should shoulder some of the blame as well (maybe not suspensions). The coaches and managers should also be responsible to see to it that no corked bats are on the premises at least a couple of hours prior to game time. Once a sport (or a professional player) loses credibility it is next to impossible to regain it. Every massive blast that goes over the fence you will be thinking to yourself, "I wonder if that bat is corked?"

It's all about integrity.

 

[vschip]

interesting articles about sammy and how much a corked bat helps the hitter:

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/columnists/skip_bayless/6018790.htm

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/05/SP279885.DTL

 

[52vincent]

Eight games out

Looks like the MLB has figured that One corked bat is equal to suspension of Eight Games for punishment.

Article

 

[TurboS7]

Mark Grace figured out how to cork his bat, at least the ump has the option of telling him he can't use it.