Sosa a cheat and a liar

IrishHand · #1 06-04-2003, 01:01 AM

Probably all over ESPN by now, but Sosa was busted today using a corked bat. His masterful defense?

"I use that bat for batting practice,'' Sosa said. "It's something that I take the blame for. It's a mistake, I know that. I feel sorry. I just apologize to everybody that are embarrassed.''

Apologize to everybody that are embarrassed? You mean yourself, right big guy? Or maybe all the people who thought your 505 home runs didn't have a little assistance outside the rules? At any rate - his name may now be appriopriately linked to Albert Belle. Thankfully, a 10-game suspension or so should be forthcoming - although if it were up to me, I'd make it longer for the pathetic "it was a BP corked bat" excuse. You see...I have all these different bats. Some are for BP, some are for games, and still others are for later on in the hotel room. Sometimes I get messed up...it happens. For the record, I only use steroids prior to practice - never before games.

Glenn · #2 06-04-2003, 01:20 AM

He should be suspended for a year. I don't think the cork helps THAT much but it is such a stupid thing to do I have no sympathy. It really detracts from the game and they shouldn't put up with it.

John Ho · #3 06-04-2003, 01:49 AM

Getting caught using a corked bat doesn't mean anything compared to his (and many other players') steriod use. That is what is making a mockery of baseball.

Lots of guys used corked bats. He should get the same suspension other guys who have been caught have gotten.

Ray Zee · #4 06-04-2003, 11:31 AM

any time an athlete does feats that are beyond the other top ones, you must look very carefully into the circumstances. he should lose all his records as everything he has ever done is now suspect. cheating at baseball is worse than using canned apples in pie.

Dr Wogga · #5 06-04-2003, 11:51 AM

....I just had my wife toss the Comstock apple pie filling [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

bentlyman · #6 06-04-2003, 01:40 PM

I agree with you guy that the guy should be suspended at least 10 days but as far as eliminating his records and a longer suspension, I think we have to wait until the facts come out. Harold Renyolds mentioned on TV that it is possible to make a mistake and use a BP bat in a game. MLB confiscated some 80 of his bats for analysis. If 5 or more of those turn out to be corked I say fry the guy. Don't get me wrong, I still am pretty sure that he is guilty, especially after seing his shifty eyed interview at the park with ESPN announcer. He kept saying "sir" after everything he said which sounded like he was on trial.

I say fry him later once all the facts are in.

John Ho · #7 06-04-2003, 01:43 PM

Baseball should test for steriods...which at this point they don't.

IrishHand · #8 06-04-2003, 07:27 PM

Apparently the 77 bats of his they took were sans cork. What does this mean? Not a heck of a lot if you ask me. It's like searching a suspect's house, finding a shirt with dried blood on it, and then him saying "but wait! My 77 other shirts have no blood." Next to steroids, corked bats are the best way for a batter to gain an illegal advantage (although the lack of anti-steroid enforcement in baseball opens the argument that it's illegal in name only).

The fact that he had 77 normal bats only means he wasn't stupid enough to cork them all (a la Albert Belle), thereby providing the built-in excuse in the rare event that one shattered that high up. (Normally bats shatter near where they grip it, precluding the likelihood that a corked bat would be "unmasked" by a routine bat shattering.)

For those, like Joe Morgan, who are now claiming it was an honest mistake based on his "that was my BP bat" defense:
(a) if you had a bat you were using outside regular games and knew it was a blatant violation of baseball's rules, wouldn't you clearly mark that bat to prevent a "mistake" from happening, and
(b) hitting is timing - why would you use a different bat to warm up with? "Making fans happy" is fine and dandy, but I don't know any pro athlete who will "make fans happy" and risk screwing up his hitting.

J_V · #9 06-04-2003, 07:35 PM

I heard some collectors opened up the 498 HR bat...worth 10K to "prove" Sammy's innocence. It came up clean. Take it for what it's worth.

HDPM · #10 06-04-2003, 07:45 PM

One other thing. Sosa has to be so FOS with this excuse. Any successful world class athlete can tell the difference in their equipment. To be an advantage, a corked bat has to be significantly lighter than a regular bat. Anybody swinging the regular bat as much as Sosa does (or purports to) would have to be able to tell the difference immediately. Tiger Woods can feel a fraction of a gram difference between drivers. Sosa isn't as exceptional as Tiger, and baseball and bats not as precise as golf or golf clubs, but come on. He must be able to tell the difference instantly. No way could this be an accident. And I'm a Cubs fan FWIW. (Although I have never been a huge Sosa fan for whatever reason.) So Sosa will get his 10 games off. But then be ridiculed and qustioned forever. Oh well.

P.S. My favorite Sosa moment has nothing to do with sosa. Harry Caray doing a run of the mill meaningless game and sosa is at bat. He starts a diatribe about names. "Steve, you ever notice that sosa spelled backwards is "Asos?" That sounds like a word. Asos. Yeah, Asos. Strike on the outside part of the plate. And your name backwards is "enots." (I don't remember this part of the diatribe exactly) Ball inside. Silence......... I'm sure glad Vizcaino isn't up." Steve Stone then has to go get some beers himself. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]