Sammy Sosa has been caught using cork for a purpose other than sealing a wine bottle, and the baseball world is thought by some to be shaken to its foundations.
Some perspective, please.
Sosa said it was a mistake. A tricked-up batting practice bat accidentally got some game use Tuesday, split open, displayed its cork guts to the world, and sent Sammy for a stay of indeterminate length in the Hall of Shame.
Call Sosa's explanation plausible if not wholly satisfying. The 76 other Sosa bats confiscated that night for examination by Major League Baseball have been determined to be cork-free.
Since the incident, we've been bombarded with accusation, lecturing and calls for introspection regarding Sosa and the sport.
Sammy's 505 career homers, his all-but-validated ticket to the baseball Hall of Fame, they are being seen in a different light in the wake of batgate.
But do not be too quick to consign Sosa to the scrap heap of history, from whence even copious blowing of kisses could not be expected to resurrect him.
Remember, please, that this is the era of image rehabilitation. Once bumbling presidents of this great land re-emerge as decorated statesmen. Marv Albert is back on television, for crying out loud.
Sosa won't be charged with murder. That was Ray Lewis. He didn't choke his coach. That was Latrell Sprewell.
Still, there will be a price to be paid by Sosa, beyond the anticipated multi-game suspension.
"Obviously, it's going to be a tough month or so when he comes back," said Pirates slugger Brian Giles, who stated flatly he's never used, or even knowingly seen a corked bat. "He knows he's going to have to deal with that and you've just got to be professional about it. I haven't really seen any of his interviews, but I heard he was real good with them. He's admitted it was a mistake."
A huge mistake it was. But fatal⢠Nah.
Boston's Manny Ramirez, like Sosa a product of the Dominican Republic, agreed to a rare interview with a group of reporters yesterday to support his friend.
"I want to stand up for Sammy because I know Sammy," he said.
"Now that this has happened, people are going to think, 'Oh, he used cork all the time.' But I don't think so."
Sosa's bulk and home run prowess -- he has hit 63 or more roundtrippers in a season three times -- in the past have roused suspicions of better living through chemistry. He has denied that he uses steroids.
Now, he's caught red-handed with illegal equipment, although there is debate about the benefits of corking a bat. A quick Google search turns up page after page of physicist testimony that the added resiliency of cork matters not when the ball is in contact with the bat an average of 1/2000th of a second. Lightening the bat by replacing some wood with cork could improve the speed of the swing, although cupping out the end, as is done by many batters, choking up, or shaving the barrel, could accomplish the same thing legally.
"I would imagine scuffing balls goes on a lot more than corking bats," said Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon, sounding like the former hitting coach that he is.
This begs the question, why even bother to cork a bat?
"To my knowledge, it's not a huge difference," Giles said. "I think if there was a huge difference, I think you'd see a lot more guys corking."
Since Graig Nettles in 1974, and prior to Sosa, five major-leaguers had been caught with altered bats, the most recent being Wilton Guerrero of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1997. He was suspended eight games for the offense.
Ramirez makes two solid points on the matter of Sosa and corked bats.
"Sammy's so big, he doesn't need that to hit home runs," he said.
Also, he added, "You've still got to hit the ball."
That is a variation of the response to critics of Mark McGwire, who used the androstenedione body-building supplement, which is legal for baseball although some think it unethical. The NFL and NBA are among the sporting organizations that just say no to andro. No matter how he got so big, McGwire still had to be able to hit the ball.
Barry Bonds, bulked up since his Pirates days and hitting home runs at a prodigious rate, also has been the victim of rumors -- unproved -- of steroid abuse.
If Sosa had admitted to illegal steroid use the other night, that would have been monstrous news, the sort that would have called his accomplishments into question.
That he used an illegal bat, on what so far is known to be one occasion, and to swat an infield groundout at that, is not the stuff that forever will cloud his career, or significantly diminish his legacy.
