Chips and Sosa

One at-bat. One pitch and one swing. One broken bat, one small piece of cork and let's make no mistake about it, one isolated and very forgivable incident.

When Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs stepped to the plate in the first inning on June 3 against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, he must have had a lot on his mind. Since being hit in the head by a pitch on April 20, he had struck out 34 times in 80 at bats. He had hit only one home run and had picked up only four RBIs. He was also placed on the DL, when his big toe swelled to twice its normal size, for the first time since 96. In his first 24 swings since returning, he swung and missed 20 times. In short, Sosa was struggling and feeling pressure to perform.

But when he stepped into that batters' box on June 3 his nagging doubts about himself and his slump caused frustrations were being shrouded by a more immediate and more threatening menace; the corked bat in his hands.

Now if you believe what Sosa said in the press conference after the game, the whole fiasco was an accident. The corked bat was nothing more than a carnival attraction, used to thrill his fans in batting practice before games.

If you believe the doubters, and there are way too many in baseball, then this was the unearthing of a Watergate sized scandal. A hive of cheating that puts one of the most amazing slugging careers into question and one that could shame a great player forever and further scar the already tarnished reputation of Major League Baseball.

If you are one of these doubters, if you are someone who wants Sosa, one of the most likeable players in the MLB, to be sacrificed to the baseball gods for the good of the game, consider a few facts. First, he was in one of the biggest slumps of his career. He could not regain his rhythm after coming back from an injury and he was feeling pressure to produce from a team falling behind the Astros in the National League Central. For the first time he was in a pennant race and for the first time in a while he was struggling at the dish. This is exactly the type of a situation where a competitive player would push morals aside and try to tip the cards in their favor.

Second, Sosa's story is not that unbelievable. In an ESPN special, Joe Morgan, a great player in his own right, admitted to having owned a corked bat for batting practice. He also admitted to having used it in a game by accident, the batboy had brought him the wrong piece of lumber after he broke a bat. The same thing could have happened to Morgan if the pitch that he ended up popping out on that at bat was a little more inside.

Third, the commissioner's office has x-rayed every one of Sosa's bats that they can find. They have found no more cork, no super balls, not even an illegal amount of pine tar after 76 tries. They have even checked the bats that Sosa sent to Cooperstown, the ones that he used to hit some of his many historic home runs, and every single bat is clean.

There are no other conclusions to come to except that Sosa either made a very bad, but isolated, decision to step to the plate with a tainted bat in his hands or he accidentally used the wrong bat at the wrong time. Whichever is the case, this should not tarnish his reputation, and it is just not substantial enough to negate what Sosa has done both in and for the game of baseball.