baseball and other cheaters

I just went to a site about the 40 greatest sports cheaters and they mention one by Sam Sosa where he used a bat with embedded cork. The bat broke in two and it was revealed right there on the field. Anyone know why putting cork inside a bat is cheating and what that accomplishes?

Originally posted by sonhouse
I just went to a site about the 40 greatest sports cheaters and they mention one by Sam Sosa where he used a bat with embedded cork. The bat broke in two and it was revealed right there on the field. Anyone know why putting cork inside a bat is cheating and what that accomplishes?

People put cork in a bat because it make the ball travel further. Sosa also clearly used performance enhancers and made believe he did not understand English (although he gave interviews his whole career and spoke fairly well) when he was in front of Congress.

My personal favorite part of the corked bat story was he openly blamed the bat-boy, claiming he gave him the wrong bat. He said he keeps the corked bat for pre-game batting practice to give the fans a show, which everyone with half a brain knows to be untrue, and the batboy handed him that one by mistake. But, apparently it looked so much like the normal bats Sosa didnt' notice it, until it cracked and the ump spotted it...

He's an idiot, and I'm glad he'll never be in the hall of fame...

Though isn't he the only player in history to miss a game due to an injury sustained while coughing?

Originally posted by quackquack
People put cork in a bat because it make the ball travel further. Sosa also clearly used performance enhancers and made believe he did not understand English (although he gave interviews his whole career and spoke fairly well) when he was in front of Congress.

Actually, putting cork inside the bat makes the bat lighter. This allows the hitter to get a better acceleration of the barrel of the bat through the strike zone. This, compounded with hitting against a stiff front leg creates greater distance and carry on the ball if contacted. This turns routine fly balls into home runs and regular home runs into monster shots. This is particularly useful in August and September when the day to day grind on the players has made their legs weaker and their swings slower. This is principally the time you would see corked bats employed.

Many players used to have them for batting practice. Sammy Sosa claimed the batboy accidentally brought him the wrong bat when one of his regular bats had broken....which of course was a crock.

Bat loading has gone on for years. In years past, they tried loading them with super balls in order to produce more kinetic pop out of the bat. The only problem with this method was it didn't appreciably lighten the weight of the bat, it just increased the momentum created.

The corked bat was found to be the wooden equivalent of the aluminum bat, although they were not nearly equal. An aluminum bat in the hands or a pro hitter would get several pitchers and infielders severely injured or killed. Titanium bats would be even worse.

Originally posted by sonhouse
I just went to a site about the 40 greatest sports cheaters and they mention one by Sam Sosa where he used a bat with embedded cork. The bat broke in two and it was revealed right there on the field. Anyone know why putting cork inside a bat is cheating and what that accomplishes?

What? Half the players in MLB, if not more, are juiced and you are only complaining about corked bats?

Originally posted by whodey
What? Half the players in MLB, if not more, are juiced and you are only complaining about corked bats?

I wasn't complaining about anything if you read my post. I didn't know what effect the cork has on the bat and swing and such, why it would make for faster hits and such.

Originally posted by sonhouse
I wasn't complaining about anything if you read my post. I didn't know what effect the cork has on the bat and swing and such, why it would make for faster hits and such.

Pay no attention to him. The train left his station long before he did.

Originally posted by sonhouse
I just went to a site about the 40 greatest sports cheaters and they mention one by Sam Sosa where he used a bat with embedded cork. The bat broke in two and it was revealed right there on the field. Anyone know why putting cork inside a bat is cheating and what that accomplishes?

Allegedly, it allows you to hit home runs with perfect ease. In fact, when the Mythbusters tested this, it did nothing of the kind, and probably even made it rather less likely to hit far balls. And as they noted, if the advantage of having a corked bat were the lower weight, as is often claimed, why not just use a lighter bat? Bats can come in many models, so all you need to do is shave an inch off its width - or use a lighter wood!
Really, using a corked bat need not be disallowed on its own. The general rule that bats are required to be solid wood is good for other reasons - carbon fibre bat, anyone? Anyone using specifically a corked bat, though, is not much of a cheater, IMO, as he probably cheats himself more than his opponents.
And when it comes to greatest cheaters, hah. I betcha your list has neither Michael Schumacher nor Lance Armstrong on it. But it should.

Richard

Originally posted by Shallow Blue
Allegedly, it allows you to hit home runs with perfect ease. In fact, when the Mythbusters tested this, it did nothing of the kind, and probably even made it rather less likely to hit far balls. And as they noted, if the advantage of having a corked bat were the lower weight, as is often claimed, why not just use a lighter bat? Bats can co ...[text shortened]... ha your list has neither Michael Schumacher nor Lance Armstrong on it. But it should.

Richard

People also printed that performance enhancers don't significantly effect home run totals. Obviously now the evidence is overwheming that susbstances can make significant differences.
Sosa by his own admission was not a novice with corking he admitted using a corked bat regularly in batting practice (presumably to put on a show). If the bat did not help him hit in further, why would he use it?
Sosa (or any professional) would only willingly take the risks of cheating after experimenting, if he was convinced he got an advantage. It is far more likely that corking is banned because it gives the batter an advantage and Sosa from experience knew that it gave him an advantage then some physicist with an over simplified model concludes that the advantage is merely psychological.

Originally posted by Shallow Blue
Allegedly, it allows you to hit home runs with perfect ease. In fact, when the Mythbusters tested this, it did nothing of the kind, and probably even made it rather less likely to hit far balls. And as they noted, if the advantage of having a corked bat were the lower weight, as is often claimed, why not just use a lighter bat? Bats can co ...[text shortened]... ha your list has neither Michael Schumacher nor Lance Armstrong on it. But it should.

Richard

Your information is severely flawed. Mythbusters is not all knowing nor all correct.

It does NOT allege that you hit home runs with perfect ease.
You might allege it, but it does allow for greater distance on the ball when struck.

You see, Mythbusters uses machines that don't tire and swing consistently.
This is not the case when a human swings a bat sever thousand times over six months.
The light bat aids them in maintaining the same bat speed they had with a heavier bat when they were stronger.
This translate in a greater amount of momentum generation against the stiff front leg.
If you read the explanation i gave earlier, you will understand.
This is accurate and I have seen and done it first hand.


Tony Gwynn used one of the smallest and lightest bats during his career. He used a bat that was 31" long and weighed just 29 ounces.
Most high school players use bigger bats.
With a bat that small and light, it allowed him greater bat control.
He hit for a tremendous average over his career.
He could also hit the ball out of the yard, although he didn't start doing it as much until his later years.
He accomplished his 20+ home run seasons by utilizing the bat speed he could generate and hitting against a locked front leg.

The moral of this story is, you don't need bat weight, but rather bat speed to generate power.

This is the law of physics, and it is not debatable, it is fact!!

Originally posted by shortcircuit
Actually, putting cork inside the bat makes the bat lighter. This allows the hitter to get a better acceleration of the barrel of the bat through the strike zone. This, compounded with hitting against a stiff front leg creates greater distance and carry on the ball if contacted. This turns routine fly balls into home runs and regular home runs into mons ...[text shortened]... several pitchers and infielders severely injured or killed. Titanium bats would be even worse.

Right after the incident, I remember reading a commentary by Joe Morgan in Sports Illustrated that was very enlightening.

He recalled that he was playing in San Francisco at the end of his career, and it was very cold at times, so he kept a corked bat that he used for batting practice. He said it absorbed vibrations better, so his hands didn't hurt as much when he hit in cold weather.

He then said that he was in a game where he broke a bat, and the bat boy brought him a new one. He hit a single, and as soon as the bat made contact with the ball he knew it was his corked bat.

He stood there on first base, thinking to himself that "if that bat had cracked, my reputation would have been ruined."

He made a point of saying that he was not justifying or verifying Sosa's defense, but that he knew it was plausible because it had happened to him, and only by pure luck did it go unnoticed.

In terms of blatant cheating, Boris Onischenko takes some beating (Google it).

Though this caught my eye recently: YouTube