Joe was also a Twin after his Astro career was over. Joe was caught with a nail file that he flipped out of his pocket as the umpires came to check him. For your education: "» August 3, 1987: Twins Joe Niekro is caught with a file on the mound and is ejected during the 4th inning of Minnesota's 11–3 win over California. He will be suspended for 10 games by American League president Bobby Brown, who doesn't buy Niekro's story that he had been filing his nails on the bench and stuck the file in his back pocket when the inning started. " http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/N/Niekro_Joe.stm
I just find it incredibly coincidental that when Hatcher and Sosa were found using corked bats, it was an "accident". What are the odds of two players accidentally using a corked bat for the first time and having them break? And you're correct, I don't know more that the rest of you. I am speculating that Hatcher and Sosa (among others) have used corked bats on more than the one occasion they were caught. I am also speculating that their stories explaining their cheating are not true.
I have some questions: 1. How does a corked bat supposedly help you? 2. Why is a spitball illegal, what makes it so good??? 3. What advantage does sandpaper, vaseline, thumbtacks etc. give to pitchers? 4. What is pine tar's usage and how does it give an advantage, if any? 5. Why is cork used in corked bats sometimes and superballs used at other times?
So, were going to pigeon hole Sammy for this? What about all the other players who do the same thing who have yet to be caught? When they get caught doing it, I'll blast them too. If he didn't want to deal with this, he shouldn't have been corking ANY of his bats. Or he shouldn't have been dumb enough to cork some of his bats and then mix them up with his "real" bats. It's that simple. I think this is being blown way out of proportion. Let's just discount everything Sammy has ever done over this. You have no proof one way or another whether this was the first time or the one hundredth time... I have proof that he cheated at least once. That puts everything he did into question, yes. Should we just assume if someone is caught cheating, everytime they weren't caught was legitimate? Basically, you're suggesting we legitimize cheating by making the penalty so insignificant (a 5-10 game suspension) that it would encourage every player in the league to cheat and take their changes on not getting caught. Nice. Fine Sammy or suspend Sammy...and let's move on. Let the league put controls in place to make corked bats illegal in the dugouts and find a way to enforce it. I don't know much about bats, but how do you determine if there is cork in there? If you have to break the thing, well, as you might guess, that would be difficult to enforce.
1. You get a lighter bat with the same density as a heavier bat. 2. The slop on a spitball (not necessarily spit) causes the ball to break in an unusual way. 3. Same as 2. You are defacing the ball which causes it to move erratically. 4. Pine tar helps a player hang on to a bat. 5. I assume this is a player's preference. I would think though that superballs (as opposed to cutting them up) force their way to the end of the bat as you are swinging which would give a heavier bat head to the ball. I suspect the principle is the same as those old softball bats that had liquid in them.
The best part about that whole incident is when Joe Knucksie tried to "casually" throw the file to the side while he was empting his pockets, hoping that the ump would not see it. The image is burned into my head. The ump had is hat off with his hand on his face, all of the sudden Joe digs into his pockets and in one swift motion throws his hands up as if to say "Look! I don't have anything!". Meanwhile, the file is flying through the air like a helicopter for what seams mintues instead of seconds and is not only clearly noticeable to the ump standing two feet away, but to everyone that was in the stadium too.' Gotta love Joe for that one ................
Suddenly I feel like Gilda Radner.....NEEEVERMIIIND. That was one of the funniest sites I've ever seen in sports (outside Nolan's headlock on Ventura). I was hoping the Sosa incident would force ESPN to show it again.
Personally I was hoping for ESPN to re-air some of the Jason Grimsley/Albert Belle missing corked bat caper from 1994.
Is that where the guy tried to crawl through the ceilings and steal the evidence from the umpire's lockeroom?
Here's a good recap of many of the incidents already mentioned: Biggest cheaters in baseball A foreign substance such as vaseline can also help a pitcher by allowing the ball to slide off the thumb easier, creating more rotation and a bigger break on the ball.
Yep, Mission Impossible style. He got the bat too. You know what, could someone confirm or refute my Nolan Ryan story posted earlier. Sounds an awful lot like the Niekro one, and I was only 11 or 12 at the time. Whoever said alcohol affects memory was a damn fool.
I googled for the Nolan Ryan story and did not find it. I think it's the alcohol talking . My only memory was Niekro and as CrazyJoeDavola mentioned, the image is burned into my memory. He tried to act so innocent of everything. It was very funny. I also read once that Billy Doran swallowed some sandpaper for Mike Scott as Scott was being checked for foreign substances.
He didn't swallow it, he simply walked casually to the mound as the umps were checking out Scott, bent over to tie his shoe, and picked up something that had fallen out of Scott's pocket as the ump approached.
One - I don't believe Sammy's excuse. You don't practice with 1 bat, then go into a game with another - that defeats the whole purpose of batting practice. Two - Yes his image will be tarnished from this. He's know for his HRs and now he's caught with a corked bat. There will be an implied asteric next to that number. Three - I'm sure he's not the only 1 out there "accidently" picking up a corked bat. But if it does only increase your speed by 1%, that is a pretty high risk for a very low return - it's only a mater of time before any bat breaks.
Actually, I'm not suggesting anything of the kind. You just made that up. Suspend him indefinitely...it will only help the Astros . I'm not suggesting anything about legitimizing cheating. I'm suggesting more needs to be done to enforce no corked bats in the dugout rule. If there is nothing that can be done to prevent it, then that in itself legitimizes cheating to some degree. How do we know unless the bat breaks? That's basically saying don't break your bat and you won't get caught. Of course, you can't control when your bat breaks but you certainly can take the chance all you want. Maybe they need x-ray machines the player must pass his bat through before he steps up to the plate .
