Sammy Sosa caught with corked bat?

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs was ejected when umpires found illegal cork in his shattered bat during Tuesday's 3-2 Interleague win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Sosa broke his bat in the first inning on a grounder to second base with Chicago runners at second and third.

But crew chief Tim McClelland examined the bat along with the three other umpires immediately after the out was called and the run scored.

The umpires showed the bat to Chicago manager Dusty Baker before ejecting Sosa, who was standing in the dugout.

Sosa was still declared out and Mark Grudzielanek was sent back to third base and the run disallowed.

But the Cubs rallied to win, Troy O'Leary scoring on a wild pitch from Al Levine (2-2) in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Mike Remlinger (4-0) tossed a scoreless ninth for the win. Lenny Harris and Ramon Martinez drove in the other Chicago runs.

Carl Crawford had two hits and drove in two runs for the Devil Rays

[TX76513]

Forgot and was using his practice bat.....Hmmmm?

I bet the poor little bat boy is going to take the heat for this one

[mike690003]

I wonder how many games he "Mistakenly" used that bat and "Mistakenly" hit home runs. Well now Sammy has lost all of my respect.

[yal]

Since coming back from injury he hasn't been hitting anything over the wall. I guess he needs all the help he can get

[Snibble]

as the old saying goes... "its only cheating if you get caught!"

[Kuan]

Hey Sammy! Why you need to take those steroids? It's not like your bat is that heavy!!!

[Zach Maggio]

I don't think anybody's buying the "batting practice" excuse...it is is certainly NOT common practice for ballplayers to hit batting practice using heavily modified bats that are illegal for use in any actual playing situation. I want to give Sammy the benefit of the doubt, but there's too much doubt in my mind: the guy's a cheater. It's obvious he can hit, but people will always wonder how many home runs out of those 505 might have been powered by the cork and not his talent. A rather sad tarnishing of his legacy.

[Ether]

The whole cork thing is bogus anyway.

I've seen this explained numerous times by various scientists, physicist and other learned individuals. I am none of those but I think the reasoning goes something like this:

The transfer of energy from bat to ball is actually reduced by the presence of a cork center. Some of the energy is absorbed by the more elastic cork that normally would have been induced into the ball. There is no 'rebound' or 'bounce' effect from the cork because the time of ball to bat contact is shorter than the time required for the energy to be reflected by the cork.
The reduced weight of the bat may allow for greater bat speed, but at best the increased speed may make up for the loss in energy transfer and mass.

I am a believer in a properly corked bat.

I played ball in the Army and roomed with a guy that corked a bat. In fact he corked several of them. He drilled a hole in the end on a lathe. I'm not sure how he found a lathe in Germany in the Army but he did. He then forced as much cork in the hole as possible and then placed an Ash plug in the end saturated with white glue. He then drove the plug in with a hammer as far as he could and wedged it in place as best he could while the glue dried. He then cut off the plug, sanded off and beat the end against rough concrete to obliterate the end so you couldn't make out the plug. I believe that the cork was under a good bit of pressure which is what would make the wood springy and quick reacting.

Now keep in mind that the guy that did this could probably have put a ball over the fence with a broom handle anyway, but it sure did seem to work.

I was a percentage hitter anyway, so I never so much as picked it up. He swung a bat too heavy for me anyway.

If they don't work, why would someone risk their career on such a thing?

Have a great day,

[Kuan]

Few years ago Albert Belle was caught with a corked bat, in fact, I think the rumor was that all his bats were corked. All things remaining equal, if you can swing the corked bat 1% faster you get, in theory, 1% more distance. But the bat is lighter, bat velocity has to increase by twice that of mass to get that effect. Also, because the bat's center of gravity is shifted to the outside, the sweet spot is (again in theory) bigger.

[yal]

I say random test for performance enhancing drugs and xray all bats brought to the ball park by a team. The team should also be fined for an infraction


.......I can dream can't I?

[Ether]

Here is some info I found regarding corked bats around the time Albert Belle was caught using one.

The corked bat thing may be true, but if so it was likely giving little if any advantage to Belle. Robert K. Adair's MLB-commissioned "The Physics of Baseball" (1990) spends a chapter discussing corked and other altered bats, and concludes that a corked bat offers a slight increase in bat speed (because 1.5-2 ounces lost come at the end of hte bat) but results in lost power because the cork or rubber that is used in the hole cuts down on the stored energy that is normally given back to the ball in the ball-bat collision. To a monster hitter like Belle, the feet lost off the homerun swing are possibly worth it for that slight increase in ability to time the pitch with a lighter bat, but interestingly offers no advantage over the hitter simply choking up on the bat or reducing the bat's barrel size from 2.5 to 2.4 inches in diameter.

If they don't work, why would someone risk their career on such a thing?

Nobody said baseball players were real smart.

[TN-W124 Diesel]

you still have to hit the ball....

[G-Benz]

What if his significant other discovered that his other "bat" was corked?