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MARC TOPKINCUBS 3, RAYS 2: The Chicago superstar is tossed in the first inning when bat splinters reveal tampering.
CHICAGO - The Devil Rays always will remember their first game at Wrigley Field. It was the one that forever tarnished the legend of Cubs star Sammy Sosa.
Sosa broke his bat during a first-inning groundout Tuesday, and umpires found a half-dollar-sized piece of cork in the barrel. Sosa immediately was ejected from the game, a dramatic 3-2 Cubs victory, and almost surely is going to be suspended, probably for seven to 10 games, perhaps immediately.
But all of that will seem minor compared with the damage to his reputation. His three 60-plus home run seasons, his 505 career home runs, his place as one of the game's top sluggers and most revered personalities are certain to be tainted.
"I saw what the umpires saw: cork," Rays manager Lou Piniella said. "You don't want to see those sort of things happen to a great player like Sammy. I hope he has a good explanation for it."
Sosa had an explanation, saying he used the corked bat to "put on a show for the fans" during batting practice and didn't intend to use it in a game.
"I just picked the wrong bat," Sosa said. "It's something that I take the blame for. It's a mistake. I know that. I feel sorry. I just apologize to everybody that is embarrassed."
Cubs manager Dusty Baker said, "deep down in my heart" he believed Sosa and added, "I just hope this doesn't tarnish his career and take away what Sammy has done for baseball and for Chicago."
Sosa, who was on the disabled list May 10-30, hasn't hit a homer since May 1 and has six for the season.
With the Yankees coming to Wrigley Field on Friday, there was little excitement about the Rays games. But that changed in the first inning when Sosa's bat split vertically when he swung at a 3-and-2 pitch from Jeremi Gonzalez and grounded to second.
Rays catcher Toby Hall said he noticed something but didn't know - or didn't want to know - what it was and tossed the bat toward the bat boy.
"Obviously, someone else saw it," Hall said. "I didn't want any part of that. I mean, it's Sammy Sosa."
But home-plate umpire Tim McClelland said Hall "picked up the bat and said, "Look at this' and kind of threw it at my feet.
"I turned it over, and there was a small, probably half-dollar-sized piece of cork in the bat right about halfway down the barrel head, I guess. It was notched in there. I felt it, and it obviously was cork."
McClelland, who also worked the game when Albert Belle was found using a corked bat and the famous 1983 George Brett pine tar game, convened a meeting of umpires to review the situation. He said they realized the magnitude of the situation but went ahead and confiscated the bat, nullified Sosa' at-bat, which had driven in a run, and ejected him.
MLB security confiscated the piece of the corked bat - the other piece "mysteriously" disappeared, apparently into the stands - and carted off Sosa's other bats for examination. Sosa insisted they won't find anything wrong.
Players will put cork in a bat to get more power and make a bat lighter. There have been several other players caught in recent years, including Belle, Wilton Guerrero, Graig Nettles, Chris Sabo and Billy Hatcher, the Rays' first-base coach.
At the time of the Sept. 1, 1987, incident, Hatcher said he was using a bat given to him by reliever Dave Smith. Tuesday, Hatcher didn't want to talk about it.
"It's totally different," he said. "Go talk to Sammy."
Throughout the major leagues Tuesday, Sosa was a prime topic of discussion.
"Everyone who hits a home run now, they're going to think you're using a corked bat," Atlanta's Andruw Jones told reporters after the Braves' game. "It just makes home run hitters look bad."
The Sosa play wiped away a 1-0 Cubs lead, and the Rays, with another strong outing from ex-Cub Gonzalez, looked as if they would make the best of it, scoring twice in the second off Cubs ace Mark Prior.
They carried a 2-1 lead into the eighth, but Jesus Colome's first bad outing in more than a month (two walks, two hit batters) allowed the Cubs to tie, and they won it in the ninth against Al Levine, who hadn't allowed a run since April 24, a streak of 171/3 innings.
Troy O'Leary - who replaced Sosa in the lineup - opened the ninth with a single. He went to second on Moises Alou's single and third on Hee Seop Choi's bunt. He scored on Levine's wild pitch.
"It wasn't an easy game," Piniella said. "We lost a tough ballgame."
The Cubs had appeared to go ahead in the first when leadoff man Mark Grudzielanek scored on Sosa's grounder to second, but he was sent back to third after the bat incident and was stranded.
The Rays took advantage of the good fortune and grabbed a 2-0 lead off Prior on a cold Chicago night, with a first-pitch temperature of 53 degrees. The Rays now are 0-14 when the temperature is below 54.
Gonzalez, who led the Cubs with 11 wins as a rookie in 1997 and started 8-8 in 1998 before a series of injuries stalled his career, did a good job against his former team, avoiding trouble through five innings. He gave up one run in the sixth on back-to-back doubles, the second skipping past diving third baseman Damion Easley, then rallied to strike out Paul Bako and Prior to end the inning.
Gonzalez said the return to Wrigley would be emotional. He declined to talk about it after the game.
Colome walked the first batter in the eighth, hit the second and walked the third. The tying run scored on a grounder by pinch-hitter Lenny Harris that should have been a double play, but Julio Lugo double-pumped on the relay. Colome hit another batter to reload the bases, but Travis Harper and Mike Venafro saved him, getting the final two outs.