|
Corked Bats
 Of the new, more sophisticated breed of ruses,
tampering with bats has probably been the most
successful, for it leaves no clues on the balls.
But this scam was exposed dramatically on September
7, 1974, when the top of Graig Nettle’s bat
came off during a Yankees game in Detroit. The
incident has attained the status of legend. Fans
of any number of teams claim it was their team
the Yankees were playing, and they know because
they were there and saw it. Accounts also differ
on what happened to Nettles’s bat. A book
called Playing Dirty, by Mike Barry and Bob Buck,
reports a common version of the story: Nettles
hit a shot, and the bat came apart in his hands,
splintering debris everywhere. Among the items
bouncing around on the field were several rubber
‘superballs.’
Back issues of newspapers say that the bat was
filled with cork, not superballs. A New York Times
article by Murray Chass reported that “as
the Yankees’ third baseman hit the ball,
the top of the bat flew off. Freehan [Bill Freehan,
the Detroit catcher] alertly noted the presence
of cork inside. Freehan called it to the attention
of Lou Di Muro, the plate umpire, who called Nettles
out for using an illegal bat.”
The understandably less charitable Detroit News
said, “Graig Nettles stood at first base
looking like a bald man whose wig had been blown
away…After the game, surrounded by questioning
reporters, the New York third baseman acted like
the straight man in a comedy act, denying that
he had used an illegal bat to hit a game-winning
home run. Those around him couldn’t hold
back the chuckles.” Both papers agreed that
the bat contained cork.
Cork is believed to give that bat a springy play.
The usually preferred explanation says that the
bat is a couple of ounces lighter with the cork
core, so you can swing it faster.
Maybe so, but the momentum of the bat is proportional
to its mass, so what you gain in bat speed is
exactly canceled out. It’s like driving faster
when you’re low on gas to get home before
you run out.
And what is to be made of those who put lead in
their bats to make them heavier? The corkers and
the leaders can’t both be right. Nettles
recalled a minor league player who filled his
bat with mercury to give it more oomph. The player
was so lousy that it didn’t seem to make
much of a difference.
The preferred corking technique is to drill a
twelve-inch bore into the thick end of the bat.
Sometimes the bat will splinter and have to be
discarded. Ground cork and glue are stuffed into
the bottom of the hole, leaving an air pocket
of several inches at the top, which is resealed
with wood putty and sanded. A careful job is virtually
undetectable. But Nettle’s bat was crudely
done: “About an inch and a half was cut from
the top of the bat, then glued back on after the
cork had been inserted,” the Times said.
“I didn’t know there was anything
in the bat; that was the first time I used it,”
Nettles protested too much. “Some Yankee
fan in Chicago gave it to me. He said it would
bring me luck. I guess he made it. I’ve been
using the same Walt William’s bat the past
three days and I guess I picked this one up by
mistake. It looked the same and it felt the same.
As soon as the end came off, I knew there was
something wrong with it.”
From: Bigger Secrets by William Poundstone
|
