Ah, my mistake - I did in fact intend to imply that the Tribune Co. was angry about the loss of money/other people profiting from their team, but wasn’t clear about it. I suspect they don’t care about who watches batting practice as long as they don’t “lose” money in the deal. I was trying to say that the numbers of people who were sitting up there - and paying someone other than the Tribune Co., while getting to watch batting practice as a side benefit - were significant enough to the company.
Where did I demand Sosa prove a negative? In fact if you have read my posts I said that we can not prove any of his HRs were hit with a corked bat.
But I would like to know how you are certain that they checked all of his bats? There was a sustantial amount of time between the finding of the corked bat the confiscation of his other bats. I am not saying it happened but I can not see how it is not possible to hide bats from MLB (Sosa or anyone).
I never said it jeopardized his HOF career. Gaylord Perry was notorious for scuffing a ball but still was inducted into the HOF.
Once again, Sosa used a corked bat. Period. End of story. 7 game suspension later he still used a corked bat.
Sorry Mods, since the thread was still open I wanted to address this.
That, coupled with the fact that the bat had an obvious mark (the letter C, writ large) on it, strongly supports his contention that he used it in the game by mistake, and would only use it intentionally for batting practice.
I would think that if it were marked, he’d be more conscious of his choice, thus making it much less of an accident. It would be more of an accident if he hadn’t marked it and just chose one that happened to be the corked one.
This probably should be in IMHO now.
If it’s true corked bats shatter much more often and Sosa used it for batting practice shows, how do you explain the fact he had only one?
The average number of baseballs used in a ML game is about one per at bat. Nearly every ball hit in the stands will have to be replaced and sometimes replaced otherwise. The number of contacts by a batter in a game is small, perhaps a dozen or less on average.
Compare this number with the number of contacts in a batting practice “show”. Perhaps its less, but it can’t be much less.
Does anyone have a cite for the “C” being on the bat? I must have missed that. I checked some of the ESPN articles but couldn’t find it. But there are a lot of articles out there.
Regardless, aahala make a good point. Where were the other corked BP bats?
Do bats normally shatter at batting practice, though? Since the ball is being thrown much slower than in a game, I would think there would be less chance of shattering anyway.
My guess is bats shatter less frequently in practice than in a game due to the lower pitching quality, so fewer miss hits.
However, if your sole purpose is to hit the ball out of the ball park, the miss hits are likely to increase relative to a game.
This is all assuming he was telling the truth when he said that the bat was corked for BP. I wonder if he ever did use it in BP. And why does he need to, anyway?
I don’t have a link, but I saw a photo (I believe it Sosa at the plate, before the bat broke). The “C” was pretty obvious on the fat end of the bat–not the type of thing any sane person would use if trying to pull a fast one. If the bats were stored fat end down, it would not have been obvious to Sosa when he selected it without his making a point of looking directly at the fat end after he pulled it out of the locker.
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I don’t see that point. Having one corked bat for a bit of showmanship, and also using several regular bats for more realistic practice makes perfect sense to me.
You have 75 bats for the game and one bat that is more likely break than any of others?
If that bat was that special, why didn’t he notice it?
But the queston remains: Who was he showing off for? Apparantly Sosa takes BP before the fans are allowed in to watch and Wrigley has blocked the roof top bleachers from seeing in to the feild. So who was there to marvel in his power? Power, by the way, that is not there because if the studies are correct the effect of the corked bat is minimal at best.
And has anyone else admitted they knew Sammy had a corked bat for BP? A bat with a big “C” on it went unnoticed on the team for how long?
You said this back on the first page of this thread. Do you have a cite that supports the notion that he takes BP before the fans arrive?
75 bats for the game that can also be used for practice, and 1 bat, just for showing off, used only in practice, where it’s less likely to break.
Because he made a mistake, perhaps confused it with another that looked similar and forgot to double-check the fat end for the mark. The fact that it was marked suggests that the difference wasn’t so obvious that one would instantly know which one it was simply by picking it up. Yes, it was a special bat, but not special in a way that was immediately noticeable just by holding it.
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These questions are addressed in the thread asking “Why used a corked bat for practice” (or some similar title). Apparently there is a second “batting practice” (more accurately warm-up) held just before the game after the spectators are admitted. And apparently many or most batters believe the corked bat makes a difference, regardless of evidence, and cling tenaciously to that belief.
THIS is what I meant by asking him to prove a negative. They checked all of his bats; you’ve got no evidence that they didn’t or that he disposed of/hid any. This would require Sosa to somehow prove that there aren’t more unchecked bats, which is impossible. They took the bats from the bat rack, his locker, and a whole lot of others he wasn’t even using - I remember questions in another thread about “why did he have so many bats?” They got everything, or at least there’s no actual reason to think they didn’t. The bats were taken the same day or early the next, I think. There wasn’t that much time anyway.
Also, nobody else suspected of this kind of cheating was ever subjected to this sort of scrutiny. None of this happened to Albert Belle - who was a jerk, but was extremely dangerous in his prime. (In his best season, he hit 50 homers and 52 doubles - I think he may be the only player to have done that. In his next best year, he hit 49 HR and 48 2B. Injuries and his temperament derailed him.) I think Sosa’s story checks out. The question that remains for me, and I don’t know that anyone else has tackled it, is “did he use that bat in any other trips to the plate, or just that once?”
Well according to Dan Patrick, BP at Wrigley takes place before the fans are admitted. He admitted that perhaps at other stadiums this could be true but he was at Wrigley when it happened.
I will look at the other thread but I have not seen any reference to a second BP in the press. Also, if Sosa believed that a corked bat increases his power he sure had a motive to use it during his slump.
I am still looking for the picture of the bat marked with “C”.
http://espn.go.com/talent/danpatrick/s/2003/0606/1564355.html
Visiting players customarily take warmup practice last, and so do so with fans watching.
Nobody else had hit 500 home runs and was a hero to millions, not to mention an veritable ambassador for the game. If he didn’t do anything wrong, then he had nothing to hide.
All I am saying that it is possible that he hid other corked bats. However you don’t think it is at all possible.
Of course you must also believe the accounting records of all the MLB teams, right? Or do you believe the players when they say the books are tampered with? There are no proof of tampered books but the suspicion and the possibility is there, right?
You don’t think that is enough time for Sosa, or anyone, to grab his special bats and hide them from inspection? How much time do you need? He probably could have hid them within 15 mins. I believe there was a few innings played beween the ejection and the confiscation. Plenty of time IMO.
I’ve NEVER said it was impossible. I said there’s no evidence it happened, and none that there’s a coverup going on. You have to judge these sorts of things by the available evidence, not speculation and possibilities.
I’m just bringing it up. I’m not aware he hid anything. He confessed, was open about it, and had all his bats inspected.