Posted on: Thursday, June 5, 2003

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

What's the world coming to when Sammy Sosa and Martha Stewart, of all people, are accused of wrongdoing on back-to-back days?

While we're almost numb to daily headlines detailing the misdeeds of miscreant athletes and greedy CEOs, this is Sammy and Martha, two faces heretofore found smiling on magazine covers and in ads, not glumly staring out of baseball's doghouse or the federal courthouse.

Stewart, the "good things" poster person and arbiter of good taste, is charged with fraud and obstruction of justice. Sosa, the slugging, kiss-blowing fan favorite, faces the prospect of suspension while his home run totals and baseball's integrity have already been called into question in the wake of the corked bat incident at Wrigley Field Tuesday.

"I just took the wrong bat and went up there," Sosa said, a contention given some support by baseball's claim yesterday that none of his other 76 bats had been doctored.

A lot of us want to believe Sosa's claim that it was a mistake his "show" bat, the one he uses in batting practice to draw the oohs and aahs of the fans, made it to the plate. We want to recall his 60-homer seasons as the remarkable human feats they appeared to be, not success through better carpentry.

For one thing, who takes more delight in putting on a show for the fans than Sosa? For another, what self-respecting major league slugger really needs to cheat when facing Tampa Bay pitching?

It would be akin to an NFL offense rubbing down its uniforms with grease to score against the Cincinnati Bengals. Or, Jason Elam doctoring a football to get more distance on his kicks in Denver.

Meanwhile, the jury is still out on Stewart — in more ways than one. Her lawyer's pleas have begun to ring as hollow as Sosa's bat once must have been.

How this plays out, it is already a sad day for baseball, which continues to be dogged with questions about the home run explosions. The issue of "juiced" players lingers, having barely been addressed. Now, the bats of one of the game's stars have been to be taken into custody and X-rayed. Sosa's bats bound for exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., are next for analysis, to see if their place was truly earned.

What's on deck for baseball, Hans Blix and United Nations weapons inspectors rooting through bat racks in both leagues?

Even Stewart, in her better days, would be hard-pressed to dress up the embarrassment this has become for baseball.