This doesn't look good for Sammy here's an article that rips him apart..
Sosa legend reaches cork in the road
June 4, 2003
THE WAY I SEE IT
It looked like a chunk of Sam-my Sosa's bat flying past the mound in the first inning Tuesday, but it might have been a large slice of his career.
Sosa hit a low, outside pitch from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' Jeremi Gonzalez, and his black, thin-handled bat broke apart like a tree branch nicked by lightning.
The top slice of wood sailed out toward the Wrigley Field mound as the ball bounced to Devil Rays second baseman Marlon Ander-son, who threw Sosa out at first.
Mark Grudzielanek scored from third base, Alex Gonzalez moved from second to third and the crowd cheered the first RBI of the game, the first of the night from its hero, its 500-homer homey, its living legend.
But wait a minute.
What's this? Umpire Tim Mc-Clelland examined a piece of the bat on the field. In the middle of the creamy wood grain was a dark brown discoloration, a spot on an otherwise-healthy lung, a blemish in the midst of symmetry, a stunning stain on purity.
Sammy Sosa uses a corked bat? Against the Devil Rays?
Sosa, the happy media darling, is no better than nasty old cheater Albert Belle?
Sosa, the I-don't-need-no-ster-oids-test man, uses an illegal stick of lumber?
McClelland, who--hello, coincidence--was the umpire during the infamous George Brett pine-tar game two decades ago, examined the bat pieces with his crew the way a wolf and its pack might examine a leg bone.
You're outta here, the ump told Sosa, who quietly had taken a seat in the Cubs' dugout. The run didn't count.
The ripples from the ruling spread quickly through the crowd, into the press box and out like waves toward the history books.
What about those 505 homers? Remember when commissioner Ford Frick put an asterisk next to Roger Maris' record of 61 homers because Maris played in a 162-game season and Babe Ruth in a 154-game season?
What kind of notation does Sosa's career home-run total now deserve? A Flubber icon? A sawhorse and glue gun? Carpenter's goggles?
The bat pieces will be examined by the powers-that-be in Major League Baseball, but it's irrelevant now. A suspension is a done deal. A reputation is tarnished.
Sosa confessed.
"I just took the wrong bat and went up there,'' he said in the interview room. "I apologize from the bottom of my heart.''
Sosa said he keeps a corked bat to use during batting practice be-cause "I like to put on a show for the fans. I like to make people happy and show off.''
I believe that. I believe gangsters keep shotguns in their trunks to shoot rabbits. I believe the Tooth Fairy is married to the Easter Bunny.
I believe--I guarantee I be-lieve--that Sosa is a liar.
Is it worth noting that after returning from his recent toe injury, Sosa struck out eight times in two games, then dumped his blond bat and began using a black bat like this busted one?
Is it worth noting that he fanned five times Saturday against the Houston Astros, switched to a black bat late in the game, then singled home the winning run in the 16th inning?
Damn right. It's all worth noting now.
Sosa went away so quietly when McClelland banished him from the game that he made Brett's tantrum in 1983 look like the act of an insane man. Or an innocent man. Or a man with a clear conscience.
From the clubhouse during the game, Sosa made some lame excuse to ESPN about picking a bat not intended for game use. What he meant was he picked a bat not intended for dissection.
This last decade has been filled with power-hitting records many of us have questioned. We didn't even have to question Mark McGwire's use of androstenedione, a muscle-enhancer banned in the Olympics and other professional leagues. Hell, the juice was in his locker.
Sosa is 25 pounds heavier than he was at the start of his career. Is that just weight training and age? Or is it the equivalent of body-corking?
Pardon us if we don't believe in denials anymore.
"Each man can trust what he wants,'' said Cubs manager Dusty Baker, snapping at my suggestion that trust is a pretty stupid thing to have these days.
Baker will defend his man; that's what managers do. But this is what he told reporters he said when he saw Sosa's bat shatter: "Deep down in my heart, I just couldn't believe that.''
There are worse things than cheating with your equipment in a game that is superfluous in the grand scheme of things. But it is disturbing to those of us who have any lingering belief in innocence, sportsmanship and fair play.
What if that ebony, toothpick-handled, tape-knobbed bat had not come apart on Sosa's weak swing? Would we have gone on believing in a false idol? Would we never have known about the old tip of the iceberg? Would we have been suckers forever?
As I wait for Sosa to speak to us about this, I feel almost sick to my stomach.
"I apologize,'' Sosa said of the incident.
Then, of the dark doors to the past his deed has opened, he said, "I guarantee to you I never used anything illegal.''
Only a fool would believe.
Contact Rick Telander at
rick@ricktelander.com.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/telan...pt-rick04.html