That one I do remember. The Niekro one is the exact same story I remember, only I thought it was Nolie. Hilarious stuff regardless.
Like most people posting in this thread, I seriously doubt this was the first time Sosa cheated. But, not knowing much about corked bats, I have a question. Given the number of bats a MLB hitter goes through every year, if Sosa were using a corked bat regularly, wouldn't this have happened sooner/before?
Telander wrote that Sosa's last at bat in the 16 inning game was with a black bat. You remember he had struck out 5 times with a brown bat earlier that day.
Guess you never played baseball. When I played we had a set of bats for batting practice and a set for game playing, hell one practice bat was wooden and we played with metal ones. We also had game balls and practice balls and those were quite different. I'm sure it's no different in the majors especially since they can afford all the extra equipment.
It depends how the bat breaks. It seems that most break at the handle and the barrel stays intact. Based solely on observation, bat barrels don't shatter that often.
If I remember correctly, Sosa's bat broke (more like 'chipped') earlier in the game. At least some Cub's bat broke and I am fairly sure it was Sosa's. It broke in a weird way. A piece simply chipped off the barrel.
Earlier he grounded out and was given a standing ovation, but I think RM95 is correct in that it was Patterson's bat that broke.
Is anybody watching the Sportscenter Special that's on about the incident right now? I'm at work so cannot see it.
I definitely don't believe it was an accident but I think Sammy was using it primarily because he was stinking it up so badly coming back from the DL. He looked terrible against the Astros and maybe he just went to the cork to try to get his swing back. There are some of his bats in the Hall of Fame already for some of the home runs he hit in the past, they should just x-ray those and see what's up.
What?!?!? Kind of reminds me of Geraldo opening that vault on live TV and having it be totally empty. Let us know what happens.
ESPN just reported that of all 77 bats taken from the Cubs were legit and not corked. Who thinks that the league said this just to save the image of Sosa since he is a baseball icon? I think so.
