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A Tuesday night game between the Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay Devil Rays wasn't what the lords of baseball had in mind when they approved interleague play. Still, the first-ever meeting of those unlikely foes will become part of the folklore of the game: the night Sammy Sosa got caught corking his bat.
We probably should have been outraged by the Cubs slugger's misbehavior. Instead, it came across as a quaintly pleasant diversion on a sleepy June evening, as if Sosa had been caught churning his own ice cream.
Corked bats, spitballs, stolen signs and other low-tech forms of cheating are as old as baseball itself. Gaylord Perry used to hide Vaseline on his cap (or in his glove or somewhere) so he could slick down a baseball and make it dance. Another pitcher, Joe Niekro, provided a timeless piece of high comedy the day umpires (and thousands of fans) caught him trying to discard an illicit emery board. David Copperfield couldn't make an emery board disappear with that many people watching. Groundskeepers have been known to water down basepaths when an opposing team's fast runners come to town. And who can forget George Brett's meltdown after umpires inspected his bat and found pine tar in all the wrong places?
For at least one night, the cork discovered in Sosa's broken bat diverted attention from more serious allegations of cheating, through the use of performance-enhancing drugs, that have afflicted baseball and most other sports. When St. Louis Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris' single-season home run record, the accomplishment was tarnished by McGwire's acknowledgement that he had regularly used androstenedione, a steroid "precursor" that was then a legal, over-the-counter supplement. Barry Bonds, who broke McGwire's record, and Sosa, the only player to hit more than 60 home runs in three seasons, have faced persistent rumors about steroid use.
Compared with andro, human growth hormone, EPO and other modern forms of cheating in sports, an old-fashioned corked bat is almost a badge of honor. And considering the Devil Rays' dismal history, Lou Piniella and his men should be honored that Sosa cared enough to cheat against them.