Baseball Shorts: The Corked Bat
In today’s episode of “Baseball Shorts,” we pay attention to corked bats. Cheating in baseball is from all times. One of the best known forms of cheating is corking a bat. It gives the hitter an advantage over the pitcher. When did they start corking bats? Read on and you will learn.
A corked bat gives the hitter the (slight) advantage of a lighter bat, which makes it possible to have a quicker swing. There is a persistent myth that cork gives a bat more pop because of a “trampoline effect.” But research has proven this is not the case.
The corking of bats traces back to the late 1800’s or early 1900’s. The first registered bat corker dates back to 1961 when Norm Cash filled his bat with ground up super balls.
Other notable corked bat users were Chris Sabo (Cincinnati Reds), Sammy Sosa (Chicago Cubs), Albert Belle (Cleveland Indians), and Craig Nettles (New York Yankees). During Pete Rose’s chase of Ty Cobb’s all-time hits record in 1985, he used corked bats as well. Two sports memorabilia collectors who owned Rose’s game-used bats from that season had the bats x-rayed and found the telltale signs of corking
The punishments for using a corked bat are diverse. José Guillen, who was caught in 2001, served a ten-game suspension, while Miguel Olivo, also caught in 2001, served a six-game suspension.
The website MIT Technology Review has a nice article about the myth of the trampoline effect of corked bats.