HOUSTON - Major League Baseball decided eight was enough for Sammy Sosa, giving him an eight-game suspension and the chance to play in the big weekend series with the Yankees.
But Sosa is hoping to get even less time for the crime of using a corked bat in Tuesday's game against the Devil Rays, making an appeal to have the length of the penalty cut.
"He made a mistake," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said at Wrigley Field. "He broke the rule. He deserves some punishment. We're hopeful that his cooperation and his respect for the game in the past and the records he set with not-corked bats will hold some credence here and hope the penalty will be reduced."
Sosa's punishment was in line with past incidents, which may have been something of an upset the way baseball officials seemed to coddle him during a two-day investigation, MLB vice president Sandy Alderson even mentioning that commissioner Bud Selig had "a strong personal affection" for Sosa.
MLB disciplinarian Bob Watson said in a statement: "It appears that Sosa's use of an illegal bat last Tuesday was an isolated incident. Nonetheless, Sammy Sosa used an illegal bat during a league game by his own admission. As such, I considered all relevant precedent and determined eight games was the appropriate sanction."
That the process was such that he was allowed to play against the Yankees was not a surprise, given the interest in the series by MLB partners Fox, which is showing today's game, and ESPN, which has the Sunday night game.
There was no dispute over the facts of what Sosa did Tuesday night: He used a bat that had cork in it and admitted that it was his. As a result, the investigation seemed to focus on whether there was evidence he had done so previously.
MLB officials seemed gleeful to announce that the 81 bats they checked (76 from the Cubs clubhouse, five from the Hall of Fame) were clean, and Sosa supporters touted his "innocence."
But there are least two flaws with that line of thinking: Sosa may have had other corked bats that MLB didn't have the chance to test; and he still had the one with the cork in it that exposed him Tuesday.
"I don't know what Major League Baseball was attempting; one was enough," Rays manager Lou Piniella said. "Whether you have one corked bat or 100 of them, what's the difference? You know? ... The argument that it was only one, to me, is a superficial argument. If you had more you probably weren't going to expose them anyway. So one is enough."
Sosa, who has been cheered by the Wrigley Field fans and was honored with a proclamation for his 500th career home run, didn't want to talk about the suspension after the 5-3 loss to the Yankees but said he was handling the trying week well.
"I believe the world's not ended yet. I'm still here," he said. "I have to be happy with myself that I know how to deal with everything. I'm a tough man. I've got a strong mind, and nobody can touch that."
Sosa claimed he had the corked bat to occasionally put on a show for the fans in batting practice and didn't realize he had taken to the plate Tuesday, and Cubs officials have said they believe him.
But there has been considerable skepticism, especially as Sosa is known to take special care of his bats. Several Chicago newspapers reported there was a "C" on the end of the bat.
No matter how long the suspension ends up being, Sosa also has to deal with the damage to his reputation and credibility and skepticism over the validity of his accomplishments.
"Sammy is a likable person, a hell of a ballplayer, and my feeling is that whether he's completely cleared or not, the jokes will continue," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "Every time he hits one a long way, people will scratch their head, and that's sad with what he's done in this game."
Piniella said he didn't see it that way. "I don't look at it all as a detraction from what he's accomplished," Piniella said. "I know baseball purists might, but I certainly don't."
Hendry said they shouldn't. "The fact that people want to tarnish what happened in his past has no credence," he said. "There's absolutely no reason that it was ever, ever going on before."
Boston pitcher Pedro Martinez, meanwhile, said Sosa was being treated too harshly by the media because he is from the Dominican Republic. "If it was (Mark) McGwire, it would still be a big deal, but not like this," Martinez said Thursday in the Boston clubhouse. "We might be Latin and minorities, but we're not dumb. We see everything that happens."
The date for the appeal before MLB president Bob DuPuy has not been set, but it won't be until next week at the earliest. The Cubs were 10-7 when Sosa was on the disabled list with a toe problem.
- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
