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Uncorked With use of illegal bat, Sosa has opened up plenty of doubtPosted: Wednesday June 04, 2003 2:33 PM
Click here to send a question to Tom Verducci's Mailbag. You can choose to believe that Sammy Sosa made an inadvertent mistake by using a bat he corked for batting practice in a game. Or you can choose not to believe his excuse and wonder if his intentions were deceitful. All that is certain is that in a game that exists on public trust, there is room for a fan to believe either scenario. Sosa's crime is that he left room for eternal doubt. Did you notice the news stories that mentioned Norm Cash's cork in 1961 and Graig Nettles' superballs in 1974? Forty years from now -- and beyond -- people will still be talking about Sosa's corked bat. For a moment let's take Sammy at his word. He says he corked a bat to put on batting practice shows for his fans. That's nothing criminal. It is, however, inherently dishonest, like a singer lip-synching for his fans. Would you be proud to tell your audience your little show wasn't legit? You want to put on a show? Lose the subterfuge and go up there hacking with a metal bat. OK, now let's continue to take Sammy at his word -- that he inadvertently took this corked bat to the plate and the very first time he used it he broke it in half, exposing the cork. Now this, ladies and gentlemen, is some world class bad luck, no? And let's not forget the carelessness and stupidity as well. You know you have a corked bat and yet you do not take extreme precautions to separate it from your gamers? Why not put tape around the barrel of the BP bat, as many hitters do, so it cannot mistakenly be used in a game? Carry it back to your locker after BP so it stays out of the bat rack. There should be no chance whatsoever that your enhanced piece of lumber could be treated as or mistaken for a legal bat. Doctored bats (and balls) have been an unfortunate staple of the game for some time and will continue to be as long as scores are kept and players are hired, paid and fired. I knew a middle infielder who told me he kept a corked bat and used it according to the pitcher and game situation. He was lucky enough never to have shattered it in a game. No one knew. Think about it. Do you believe that the only guys corking bats are the ones unlucky enough to get caught -- and that all of them got caught the very first time they used one? Sosa will be fined and suspended for at least 10 games. Baseball must have a zero-tolerance policy for cheating, regardless of any dog-ate-my-homework excuses. The Cubs will miss him. The suspension is not the worst of it. It is the doubt. I have no problem with giving Sammy a pass, swallowing his explanation but also questioning his carelessness as a professional. I cannot, however, dismiss those people who at least question his motivation for taking an illegal, corked bat to the plate. Only Sosa allowed even that thought to enter the public domain.
The Mariners are playing exceptionally well. It seems as if every player is contributing in a different but equally important way. Is this year's team akin to the exceptional 2001 club? Is it better, worse or about the same? And most important, is Seattle really just one "big-name" player away from seriously contending for the AL crown, or can this team, the way it's constructed right now, legitimately make a title run? The Mariners are essentially the same team they've been for the last few years: great defense, very good bullpen, great fundamental play and an aging, though very productive, DH as their heart and soul. Seattle can make a title run as long as Edgar Martinez stays healthy, Freddy Garcia elevates his game and Gil Meche and Joel Pineiro are lights out in the postseason. The Mariners have lacked the take-charge rotation that gets you through two rounds of the playoffs, but those two young pitchers could change that. With all the promise of their young players, should A's fans be at all worried about the team's failure to win a single playoff series in the last three years? So much has been made about Barry Zito, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder, yet Oakland has little postseason success to show for all its talent. The "youth" excuse seems to have worn a bit thin. What do you think the odds are that the team could be broken up, at least somewhat, if it either fails to make the playoffs or flames out in the first round?
Only money will break up the A's, and those starters aren't going anywhere for a couple of years. The reason I picked Oakland to win it all this year is that I believe Zito, Hudson and Mulder can run the table in the postseason with one great start after another, even with a mediocre offense. I think they're reaching their maturation as pitchers and now have the stuff and experience to break through in October. Even if they don't, you can expect GM Billy Beane to stick with the plan next year, too. Would you consider Cincinnati's Adam Dunn to be the new Dave Kingman, albeit without the "winning" personality? Dunn's combination of low batting average, staggering home run output, colossal strikeout numbers and solid walk rate would seem to be on par with Kingman's prime years. Watching Dunn play reminds me a lot of Kingman's all-or-nothing style.
Not a bad call, though Kingman never walked more than 62 times in a season and had a career OBP of .305. Dreadful. Dunn has a much better command of the strike zone. Are you surprised by the struggles of Marlon Byrd and Pat Burrell? Do you think the Phillies should give Jason Michaels a chance in center field?
I'm more surprised by Burrell -- who has a track record of hitting well and the support of Jim Thome batting in front of him -- than Byrd. But Burrell still gets himself out way too much by chasing pitches, a practice that is likely to hold him back his entire career. Byrd is a strange player, given his heft at a flychaser's position, and I'm not sure how much he will hit. He's very raw. It's a tough call about Michaels. I'm not familiar enough with him to know if he's ready to play everyday for a contender, but I do know the Phillies should not count on making Ricky Ledee an everyday guy at that spot. Tom, what's happened to Scott Boras? A few years ago he was the stubborn mastermind who could bring any team to its knees. But before this season, he grossly overestimated the value of Kenny Rogers, who had to settle in Minnesota for a fraction of what Texas offered, and now Boras been fired by Gary Sheffield. Has the new labor agreement taken the superagents down a notch, or has Boras lost his touch?
Don't forget, Boras also turned up no market whatsoever for Greg Maddux, which was really weird. I think an agent's profile goes in cycles, depending on how his players perform and what clients he picks up and loses. The guy still has Barry Bonds and A-Rod, so let's not write off his abilities to broker great deals. Boras is still one of the sharpest minds in the business. But the business is in an economic downturn. It's like asking what happened to all the wizards of investment banking in the late 1990s. Did they get dumb all of a sudden or did the market change drastically? Tom, can you offer any insight as to how Major League Baseball sets its schedules? As a Phillies fan, it's unbelievable to me that the five teams the Phils face in interleague play are Seattle, Oakland, Anaheim, Boston and Baltimore. Meanwhile, defending NL East champion Atlanta plays Seattle, Oakland, Tampa Bay, Baltimore and the Rangers. Where's the equity in that schedule?
There is no equity. That's the price you pay for the gimmick, albeit a popular one, of interleague play, especially the home-and-home matchups of natural rivals. For example, George Steinbrenner has complained about the Yankees' interleague schedule. But would he want to give up his home series against the Mets, which is a guaranteed sellout, for one against the lowly Brewers or Pirates? People who criticized the schedule have to understand that a) you can't predict with great certainly a year and a half in advance who will be good or bad (the Cubs, whom the Yanks play this weekend, looked bad when the 2003 dates were being set) and b) there's just no way you can make the schedule completely balanced when you have one 14-team league and one 16-team league and the natural rivals want to play each other home and away. It's the price you pay for the overall popularity of interleague play. Loved your column on the Expos travels this season. Why the hold up with their move? Why can't they just go to Portland or Virginia already? Why is this taking so long? And while the travel could take its toll, don't you think that ultimately the club is better off playing in front of enthusiastic crowds in San Juan than in the funeral parlor in Montreal?
I think it's a great idea that the Expos play some games in San Juan, but, then again, I'm not on all those trips. There are lots of sticking points on nailing down a new location for the Expos -- including the appeasement of Orioles owner Peter Angelos on potentially putting a team in his region and being absolutely certain that the ownership groups have solid commitments for a new ballpark. The biggest mistake baseball made when it put a team in Miami was figuring the Marlins could work out a stadium deal a year or two after they were awarded the team. Those days are over. No stadium, no team. As a Jays fan, I'm thrilled about Vernon Wells' emergence this year. I can think back to a couple of seasons ago and remember his name coming up a lot in trade rumors. How close did the Jays come to trading away Wells? What kind of future do you think he has? Will he be a yearly 30-100 guy?
The Jays didn't come close to dealing Wells, but they did have internal discussions about trading him for Hank Blalock of the Rangers. Those two guys are two of the brightest young players in the game this year. I think Wells is a potential Gold Glover who should hit for a little more thunder than Torii Hunter. What do you think the Yankees have to do to get out of this funk? And what do you see happening with the outfield and starting rotation since Jeff Weaver is terrible and Jose Contreras is starting to surface?
Boy, I never thought Nick Johnson meant so much to this team. The Yankees do miss him and Bernie Williams, and when they get back from the DL it will be as if the club has acquired two major players before the trading deadline without having given anybody up, which will be a real jolt for New York. I think the Yankees have to slog by for these four weeks without them. The rotation probably will be in flux the whole season. Age is still a question, one that will come into play more in the heat of the summer and second half. I've always said that how far the Yankees go in the playoffs, assuming they get there, depends on what kind of shape their rotation is in come October. There's just no way of knowing that. But think about this: Joe Torre said he might have made a mistake last year by using his starters as much as he did in September trying for homefield advantage. Now, assuming the Yanks are not going to blow open their division, Torre is going to have to lean on this old staff just to get into the playoffs. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers baseball for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Click here to send a question to his Mailbag.
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