Being the avid baseball fan that i am, I've often looked at Sammy Sosa and wondered how he managed to put so much muscle on his frame in the relatively short amount of time he did so. So I have to admit that i am more prone to believe he is a cheater anyway. To me, him getting caught with that corked bat is simply verification of what I have felt all along: Sammy Sosa will do anything possible to get an advantage in hitting a baseball. I believe he has been using steroids and corking bats for as long as he has played the game. He just happened to have the bad luck to get caught.

Uh...then why are none of his other bats filled with cork? And why have none of them broken before to reveal the cork? And about the steroids, big frickin' whoop. 95% of all baseball players use steroids. It's not cheating, since there's no rule against it.

Originally posted by BorgHunter
Uh...then why are none of his other bats filled with cork? And why have none of them broken before to reveal the cork? And about the steroids, big frickin' whoop. 95% of all baseball players use steroids. It's not cheating, since there's no rule against it. Uh... because everyone in baseball knows that you only cork one bat at a time because they know baseball will confiscate all of their other bats to be checked. Make sense? There are rules against using performance enhancing drugs. Why do you think HGH is banned? Why do you think that the players union will not agree to drug tests that check for steroids? And 95% is not a realistic percentage. IF that were so, everyone in baseball would look like Barry Bonds (HGH) and Sammy Sosa (steroids) Bret Boone (steroids) etc. Get the picture? Steroids and HGH change your appearance drastically in a short amount of time. Its not that hard to notice these changes.

Sammy Sosa's excuse was that he only corked one bat so that he could "put on a show" for fans during batting practice. He claims he went up to bat not knowing that he had a corked bat.

Bullshit, I say.

I didn't play baseball anywhere near as much as Sammy Sosa, but I do remember the exact dimensions of the bat I used. It was a 32" 28oz bat. I could tell immediately if it was a 32" 30oz.

I refuse to believe that Sammy Sosa went up to bat not noticing that his bat was altered. He was in a slump and looking for a pick-me-up. I don't think Sammy Sosa cheated the whole time, but I think it would be naive to believe that was the only time that he did use a corked bat. Hopefully this will never happen again. But I think the damage is already done. We still remember the names of the guys caught cheating that had no where near the numbers that Sosa had. For better or for worse, this incident will always be remembered.

Yeah, I don't believe for a second a pro baseball player doesn't know what sort of bat he's using. There's no doubt in my mind he cheats now. I remember when Sosa was a mediocre hitter for several years and all of the sudden he blossumed into a powerhouse home run hitter. I bet corked bats and steroids both have something to do wtih that.

The steroid thing is off topic. If everyone's using steroids as you claim, then it's not cheating to use it (Granted, it's not something I endorse). Not everyone's using corked bats. Cheating is when you do/use something outlawed to your advantage that very few others use. Sammy Sosa is a cheater beyond comparison to the rest of the baseball community.

Well, a lot of hitters "blossumed" in the mid 90s due to smaller ball park size and rumors of balls being juiced up. Being an Astros fan, I always followed the careers of Steve Finly and Luis Gonzalez. Both were ~10 home runs/year hitters until, all of a sudden, they both suddenly turned into sold 25+/year hitters. Sosa also magically did the same thing, albeit a little earlier in the 90s. Who know, steroid use may be more wide spread than we think.

He went out with an illegal bat - he got caught - he's a cheat.

There is no excuses or apologies that can change the fact that when he had that bat in his hand he was cheating & he knew it.

What a great role model for the kids eh?