Sosa's cork creates crisis conundrum

Prior to Sammy Sosa being caught Tuesday night, it had been six years since a major leaguer had used a corked bat. \nDodgers infielder Wilton Guerrero got caught after breaking a bat in St. Louis. The hilariously memorable image of that day was Guerrero serving as his own bat boy by running out into the infield and picking up the remaining jagged wood. Not that it was an admission of guilt or anything.\nWhat happened with Sosa Tuesday night in Chicago was not so funny. Instead, it was an example of how money corrupts those who want to be known as both beastly intimidating to pitchers and gently ingratiating to kids.\nAs a result, Sosa has more credibility to lose than most. He thrives on attention, almost capable of hitting home runs on demand. In fact, he is the only player ever with three seasons of 60 or more home runs (1998, 1999, 2001).\nHome runs being what they are, let it be known that Sosa gets paid a lot to do his job. He currently works from a four-year, $72 million contract signed in March 2001. However, he also has the right to opt out of his contract after this season and become a free agent or stick with the Cubs.\nWith the market on baseball salaries headed downhill, Sosa would have needed a monster season to be able to legitimately wonder if testing the free market would be worth it. Sosa's primary interest has always been money; call him greedy if you like, but if I had grown up in the squalor that Sosa did in the Dominican Republic, and if I had the family to support that he had, I might be playing to the highest bidder as well.\nComing off the disabled list last Friday after a toe injury kept him out three weeks, Sosa managed just two hits -- neither of them home runs -- in 15 at-bats in three games. He also struck out eight times, often swinging late at fastballs. \nOne way to get around more quickly on a fastball is by using a lighter bat. A corked bat allows the bat to maintain the same density while feeling lighter and allowing for more bat speed.\nSosa, though, insisted after the game while the illegal bat he broke was his that he only used it during batting practice as a way to entertain the fans who come early to watch Sosa put on a show. Sosa's story was interesting, but he never satisfactorily explained why a corked bat wouldn't be marked to make sure it wouldn't be game-used.\nSosa also might be baseball's most marketable player. Even though a decent-sized group of White Sox fans, baseball "purists" and Chicago Tribune sports columnists have done their best to slight Sosa's accomplishments, Sosa's international popularity has made him an ideal product pitch man. Sosa's credibility is in huge jeopardy now, especially in a culture when SportsCenter will think of any excuse to show a piece of juicy video. (Bob Knight's 1985 chair-throwing incident comes to mind.)\nSpeaking of lacking credibility, now would be a good time to talk about the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons fired coach Rick Carlisle and hired Larry Brown to replace him two days later. What's interesting about Brown isn't that his nomadic coaching lifestyle has not only taken him to nine pro teams and two traditional college powers, Kansas and UCLA, in 32 years as a coach, but the fact that he never gets fired from any of his jobs. He always resigns, and his leaving the Philadelphia 76ers a week prior to taking the Pistons job was no different. \nThe Pistons hiring process involving Brown was embarrassing. It wasn't just that Brown's Sixers were eliminated by Carlisle's Pistons in the conference semifinals; it was a ridiculous press conference announcing Carlisle's firing in which President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars sat side by side with Carlisle and talked about how much respect he had for Carlisle but that "it was time to go in a different direction." Dumars later added the Pistons didn't "have anybody in place" to replace Carlisle but then hired Brown 48 hours later.\nFor Dumars, it was clearly an attempt to take the pressure off him and put it on owner Bill Davidson. Instead of saying, "I decided," he said, "It was decided." If I were Davidson, I would have fired Dumars for insubordination right there. Barely subtle, passive-aggressive rips on the owner ought not be tolerated, especially if it is a team's most outfront executive.\nThen again, he won't have to worry about firing Larry Brown.