A little 'cheating' goes a long way in Sosa's revival

	Sammy Sosa has found ways to make up bat speed to put up big spring stats. John Biever/SI
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SURPRISE, Ariz. -- You can't have a good comeback story in baseball without a little controversy. So it is that Sammy Sosa, in his return from major league purgatory, is being accused of cheating.

"He's cheating," the baseball whisperers say, "on the fastball."

This, in scoutspeak, means that Sosa has been so slow with the bat this spring that he has to start swinging early to catch up with a good fastball. He's guessing what's coming, in effect. The bad part of cheating is that he's then vulnerable to breaking balls, other off-speed pitches (he ends up swinging too soon) or stuff low and away (he can't reach it because he's committed to getting in front of the pitch).

Is it true? Is Sammy cheating?

Ron Washington, the Rangers' manager, won't completely discount the theory.

"Every baseball player that steps into that box cheats," Washington, one of the straightest shooters in the game, said on a side field at the Rangers' spring training facility here recently. "If that means starting a little quicker to tag something through the gap, or hit it 1,000 miles -- cheat, Sammy. Cheat.

"He's been finding the head of his bat, he's been hitting balls into right-center, he's been hitting balls down the line, he's been hitting balls down the left field line, he's been hitting them in the gap. He's been hitting them 1,000 miles. Continue to cheat, Sammy. You gotta do what you gotta do."

Sosa, a non-roster invitee into Rangers' camp, has had a good enough spring (.409 average, four homers, seven total extra-base hits) that he is now, officially, on the team. But the big questions remain: When the games count, will he hit like he did in his Cubs glory days, his forgettable Orioles days or somewhere in between? And what happens when somebody like Toronto's Roy Halladay starts throwing BBs that Sosa can't catch up to?

"You tell me how many hitters can," Washington said. "So the same thing that's going to happen to Sammy is going to happen to a Hank Blalock, it's going to happen to a Michael Young, it's going to happen to a Manny Ramirez on certain days."

The real test begins when the Rangers open their season Monday against the Angels in Anaheim. Their home opener is next Friday against the Red Sox.

"If they don't want him cheating on that fastball, throw something else. That's the way I look at it," Washington said. "Now, if the pitcher makes an adjustment, and he doesn't make an adjustment ... then we'll see what the result is. But he's going to make an adjustment."