How has this story been given no airtime? According to the Chicago Tribune, on the fateful night in 2003 when Sammy Sosa was busted with a corked bat, there were over 70 more corked bats in the Cubs possession, and MLB let Chicago get rid of the corked bats before entering the clubhouse to inspect the remainder of the bats.

Several sources close to the Cubs have told me Sosa was not the only Cubs player who used a corked bat, at least in 2003. On the night Sosa’s bat exploded for all to see, officials from Major League Baseball notified the Cubs organization during the game that they had one hour to get rid of any other corked bats of Sosa’s in the team’s clubhouse before they came down to inspect his arsenal of bats. More than 70 marked corked bats then were extricated quickly by Cubs personnel from the clubhouse, about a third of them belonging to other players.

Our first thought: can we all just agree that after the Tour de France and Track and Field, baseball is the sport with the most cheaters? This is an appalling story, and there are a few reasons why this story has gained no traction in the national media. First, it was All-Star week, so everyone was geeked for that and nobody wanted to report any negative news (unless it was slamming Barry Bonds – that’s kosher). Second, we’re of the opinion that while many beat writers are in the tank for their respective sport (an easy trap to fall into), for the most part, baseball writers (obviously there are notable exceptions) are the worst.

This story absolutely has to be further explored. Though it’s completely out of our purview as a lowly blogger, it’s exactly the kind of story that would have gotten us fired up back in our journalism days. Of course, it might get you shut out from a bunch of players and coaches and agents and MLB altogether, but hey, that’s the risk you take.

We’d like to see an investigative reporter all over this story, but we’re not holding our breath.

70 corks – that’s a lot of wine (Bugs and Cranks)
‘03 Sosa episode was real corker (Chicago Tribune)