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Sosa ejected for using corked bat
CHICAGO (June 3) - Chicago Cubs star Sammy Sosa was ejected in the first inning of Tuesday night's 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays after umpires found cork in his shattered bat.
The Cubs had runners at second and third when Sosa broke his bat with a grounder to second that at first appeared to drive in a run.
But crew chief Tim McClelland gathered with the other three umpires to examine the bat. Cubs manager Dusty Baker came out and the umpires showed the bat to him.
Mark Grudzielanek was sent back to third base, the run was wiped off the board and Sosa was ejected as he stood in the dugout.
Umpires took part of the bat into the Cubs dugout and down the runway toward their clubhouse. McClelland also was the umpire who took away a home run from Kansas City's George Brett in 1983 because of excessive pine tar, a decision later reversed by AL president Lee MacPhail.
Cork inside a wooden bat is thought to help players hit the ball farther and is against baseball rules. Several players have been caught using altered bats in the past, including Albert Belle, Wilton Guerrero, Chris Sabo, Billy Hatcher and Graig Nettles.
``Unfortunately, it's a dirty mark, when you consider all he's accomplished,'' Yankees manager Joe Torre said of Sosa. ``It's really unfortunate for the game. Everybody's scratching their heads right now. ... It's embarrassing. He's too good of a player. It's too bad.''
Sosa just came off the disabled last Friday after having the nail taken off his big right toe and missing 17 games.
Entering Tuesday, he was just 2-for-15 in his three games since coming off the DL, including one five-strikeout game in which he also had the game-winning single against Houston.
Sosa, a six-time All-Star who reached 500 career homers earlier this season, hasn't had a homer since May 1 and his power numbers have dropped drastically since he was beaned April 20 by the Pirates' Salomon Torres.
He has just six homers this season and 24 RBIs, while batting .285.
Sosa has the most 60-homer seasons (three) in major league history, hitting 66 in 1998, 63 in 1999 and 64 in 2001.
Chicago's then Comiskey Park was the site of one of baseball's biggest corked bat capers in July 1994 when the bat of Belle, then with Cleveland, was confiscated.
Umpires took it to their dressing room before an Indians teammate crawled across the ceiling and switched Belle's confiscated bat with one belonging to a teammate.
Once the caper was discovered, the original bat was finally examined and Belle was suspended for 10 games, a penalty that was reduced to seven games.
Guerrero, then with the Los Angeles Dodgers, was suspended for eight games in 1997 for using cork in his bat. Sabo, a part-time third baseman with Cincinnati, was suspended for seven games and fined $25,000 for using a corked bat against Houston in 1996.
Hatcher was suspended for 10 days in 1987 after using a corked bat for Houston. It was the first such ejection since Nettles, then with the New York Yankees, was tossed in 1974 after six superballs came out of his bat during a game against Detroit.
Chicago won Tuesday's game in the ninth when Al Levine (2-2) threw a wild pitch that allowed Troy O'Leary, who had replaced Sosa, to score from third.
O'Leary and Moises Alou singled, Hee Seop Choi sacrificed and Levine then threw the wild pitch.
Mike Remlinger (4-0) got the win with a scoreless ninth.
Tampa starter Jeremi Gonzalez left with a lead before the Cubs tied the game in the eighth when Lenny Harris hit an RBI grounder.
Gonzalez, the former Cubs pitcher whose career has been slowed by two elbow operations and knee surgery, took a shutout into the sixth before Choi and Martinez hit back-to-back doubles. He went six innings, allowing seven hits and a run.
Tampa Bay took the lead off Mark Prior in the second on a two-run single by Damion Easley. Prior allowed eight hits and two runs in eight innings.
06/03/03 23:50 EDT
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
[ 06-04-2003, 02:09 AM: Message edited by: Rimfire ]
The Cubs had runners at second and third when Sosa broke his bat with a grounder to second that at first appeared to drive in a run.
But crew chief Tim McClelland gathered with the other three umpires to examine the bat. Cubs manager Dusty Baker came out and the umpires showed the bat to him.
Mark Grudzielanek was sent back to third base, the run was wiped off the board and Sosa was ejected as he stood in the dugout.
Umpires took part of the bat into the Cubs dugout and down the runway toward their clubhouse. McClelland also was the umpire who took away a home run from Kansas City's George Brett in 1983 because of excessive pine tar, a decision later reversed by AL president Lee MacPhail.
Cork inside a wooden bat is thought to help players hit the ball farther and is against baseball rules. Several players have been caught using altered bats in the past, including Albert Belle, Wilton Guerrero, Chris Sabo, Billy Hatcher and Graig Nettles.
``Unfortunately, it's a dirty mark, when you consider all he's accomplished,'' Yankees manager Joe Torre said of Sosa. ``It's really unfortunate for the game. Everybody's scratching their heads right now. ... It's embarrassing. He's too good of a player. It's too bad.''
Sosa just came off the disabled last Friday after having the nail taken off his big right toe and missing 17 games.
Entering Tuesday, he was just 2-for-15 in his three games since coming off the DL, including one five-strikeout game in which he also had the game-winning single against Houston.
Sosa, a six-time All-Star who reached 500 career homers earlier this season, hasn't had a homer since May 1 and his power numbers have dropped drastically since he was beaned April 20 by the Pirates' Salomon Torres.
He has just six homers this season and 24 RBIs, while batting .285.
Sosa has the most 60-homer seasons (three) in major league history, hitting 66 in 1998, 63 in 1999 and 64 in 2001.
Chicago's then Comiskey Park was the site of one of baseball's biggest corked bat capers in July 1994 when the bat of Belle, then with Cleveland, was confiscated.
Umpires took it to their dressing room before an Indians teammate crawled across the ceiling and switched Belle's confiscated bat with one belonging to a teammate.
Once the caper was discovered, the original bat was finally examined and Belle was suspended for 10 games, a penalty that was reduced to seven games.
Guerrero, then with the Los Angeles Dodgers, was suspended for eight games in 1997 for using cork in his bat. Sabo, a part-time third baseman with Cincinnati, was suspended for seven games and fined $25,000 for using a corked bat against Houston in 1996.
Hatcher was suspended for 10 days in 1987 after using a corked bat for Houston. It was the first such ejection since Nettles, then with the New York Yankees, was tossed in 1974 after six superballs came out of his bat during a game against Detroit.
Chicago won Tuesday's game in the ninth when Al Levine (2-2) threw a wild pitch that allowed Troy O'Leary, who had replaced Sosa, to score from third.
O'Leary and Moises Alou singled, Hee Seop Choi sacrificed and Levine then threw the wild pitch.
Mike Remlinger (4-0) got the win with a scoreless ninth.
Tampa starter Jeremi Gonzalez left with a lead before the Cubs tied the game in the eighth when Lenny Harris hit an RBI grounder.
Gonzalez, the former Cubs pitcher whose career has been slowed by two elbow operations and knee surgery, took a shutout into the sixth before Choi and Martinez hit back-to-back doubles. He went six innings, allowing seven hits and a run.
Tampa Bay took the lead off Mark Prior in the second on a two-run single by Damion Easley. Prior allowed eight hits and two runs in eight innings.
06/03/03 23:50 EDT
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
[ 06-04-2003, 02:09 AM: Message edited by: Rimfire ]
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Not quite. Bonds has always been a 'me' player and disliked by his team-mates and the media. The same cant be said for Sosa.
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