Fully Corked Sosa

There has been a lot of talk in baseball about performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and whether or not players who used PEDs should be allowed in the baseball Hall of Fame. Some of the greatest players of all-time are suspected or known to have used PEDs including, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Mcgwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. The last four were recently denied enshrinement into the baseball Hall of Fame by a long shot.

This debate will go on for quite some time as more baseball players are admitting to using PEDs, and I'm glad I don't have to make the decision whether they get in or not. Sammy Sosa received the least amount of votes in the latest Hall of Fame voting and I agree with this. Other than probably/possibly using PEDs, Sammy Sosa is the only guy on that list that has been caught using a corked bat.

In 2003 in a game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Sosa broke his bat on a routine ground ball and was thrown out at first. The umpires noticed that the bat had cork in it and immediately began examining it. Sosa was ejected from the game and was suspended for 7 games after that.

You can see the cork in the middle of Sosa's broken bat.

Sosa's Hall of Fame bats and the rest of his regular bats were checked and none were found to have cork in them. Sosa claimed that he used the bat for batting practice and he accidentally used it in the game although the Cubs have never allowed corked bats in batting practice. The interesting thing is after Sosa is thrown out at first he hustles over to pick up his bat. Isn't that the bat boys job? What superstar picks up the pieces to their broken bat? And is in some sort of hurry to do so? Sosa obviously knew that he was using the bat, otherwise he would not have made a concerted attempt to quickly pick up the pieces. Not to mention Sosa was in a 2 for 15 slump and struck out 5 times a few days earlier. He was obviously looking for a pick me up. 

Baseball will eventually make a decision about whether or not to vote in PED and steroid users to the Hall of Fame. If they do start letting them in, they have to take into consideration that Sammy Sosa purposely used a corked bat to gain an advantage on the field, which is flat out cheating. Keep Sosa out for good.