Nettles never came close to approaching the stardom Sosa has. Over the past few seasons Sosa has been one of the top three sluggers in baseball (along with Bonds and A-Rod), whereas in 1974, Nettles wasn’t even the best 3rd baseman, as both Schmidt and Bando had better seasons. Sosa will be a first ballot Hall of Famer (even with the corked bat incident), whereas Nettles has been eligible for years and hasn’t made it.
A lot is being made of now of the corked bat because of Sosa’s prominence in baseball, but in time it will fade. Several years from now, when Sosa is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, the corked bat incident will be merely a footnote.