Corked Mickey Mantle baseball bat on the auction block

I found this article pretty interesting and thought I would share it. Corked Mickey Mantle baseball bat on the auction block Corked Mantle bat up for auction

Mickey Mantle was a baseball hero to a whole generation of New York Yankees fans young and old. Nothing — not even any of The Mick's off-the-field escapades, surly disposition or flawed personal life choices — could put a damper on any of the slugger's 536 career home runs that brought so much joy to so many.


Now a corked bat — reportedly swung by the Yankees icon is hitting the auction block — could raise some eyebrows about the Hall of Famer's legacy. And it's for sale.


Grey Flannel Auctions is auctioning the doctored Hillerich & Bradsby Co. bat, which was studied by PSA/DNA authenticator John Taube. Taube noticed alterations at the top of the bat’s barrel, and X-rays showed that the barrel had been drilled and filled with cork.


“This is the first corked bat of Mantle that we have seen or heard of,” Taube wrote in his report.





Part of the bat’s handle is coated in pine tar, a characteristic seen on other Mantle bats from the 1960s.


Mantle wasn't the first player to swing a doctored bat. Players have been known to add cork and other substances to bats to improve swing speed, all in hopes of adding extra power to their swings.


But doctoring bats is illegal and this a man with three AL MVP's to his credit.


Embarrassing, too. Chicago Cubs star Sammy Sosa was suspended for eight games in 2003 after his bat shattered during a game, sending pieces of cork flying.


Last month, a game-used Pete Rose bat that also featured a hidden cork panel sold for $8,000 at auction.





Mantle played 18 years with the Yankees and helped the team win seven World Series championships. His name alone still evokes memories of tattered first mitts, summer days and brings tears to many grown men's eyes.

You'll need $5,000 to reserve an opening bid.

So, I assume this (if proven to be real, etc) means his plaque will be put in separate room, along with the PED users?

I mean, both did use their cheats to prolong an aging career and maintain batspeed. Am I missing something? Am I just bored and starting something?

VandyDan said:

So, I assume this (if proven to be real, etc) means his plaque will be put in separate room, along with the PED users?

I mean, both did use their cheats to prolong an aging career and maintain batspeed. Am I missing something? Am I just bored and starting something?

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No player has ever been suspended for 50 or 100 games for a corked bat and no player has ever been permanently banned from baseball for it either, because not many really care all that much about the small cheats. That must be what you are missing.

sportscardtheory said:

No player has ever been suspended for 50 or 100 games for a corked bat and no player has ever been permanently banned from baseball for it either, because not many really care all that much about the small cheats. That must be what you are missing.

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I'd be curious what players were suspended for, back then. I'll cop to not having been alive during Mickey's playing heydey to remember.

So, players who did PEDs before there were common, long suspensions for them should be in the (ahem) clear?

Because it seems prior to 2005, the two offenses were treated quite similarly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corked_bat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ers_suspended_for_performance-enhancing_drugs

Is it that steroids were previously thought to be small, and players were wrong to think so, AND are right to think that bat doctoring is basically no biggie? Or is bad doctoring substantively different than PED usage (for hitters), despite both being done for pretty much the same reasons?

I'll say this, if I'm a pitcher, at least the PED head is obvious in his appearance. One cannot tell a corked bat by looking at it as easily.

The addition of adding cork to a bat is not for making the ball go further, as most people believe.
It's for making the bat lighter, increasing bat speed, while still keeping the added length of a normal bat.

However, according to tests done by the show, Mythbusters, adding cork to a bat actually makes the ball go a shorter distance.

In the August 8, 2007 baseball special episode of Mythbusters, the experts found that a ball hit by a corked bat travels at only half the speed of a ball hit by an unmodified bat, causing it to go a shorter distance. The cork inside the bat actually absorbs the kinetic energy like a sponge, hindering the batter's performance. In addition, because corked bats are lighter, they have less momentum to transfer to the ball, bringing them to the conclusion that the use of a corked bat had fewer benefits over a regular bat.

Austin said:

The addition of adding cork to a bat is not for making the ball go further, as most people believe.
It's for making the bat lighter, increasing bat speed, while still keeping the added length of a normal bat.

However, according to tests done by the show, Mythbusters, adding cork to a bat actually makes the ball go a shorter distance.

In the August 8, 2007 baseball special episode of Mythbusters, the experts found that a ball hit by a corked bat travels at only half the speed of a ball hit by an unmodified bat, causing it to go a shorter distance. The cork inside the bat actually absorbs the kinetic energy like a sponge, hindering the batter's performance. In addition, because corked bats are lighter, they have less momentum to transfer to the ball, bringing them to the conclusion that the use of a corked bat had fewer benefits over a regular bat.

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Failed test ignoring that a corked bat can be swung faster..

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The above explanation makes perfect sense and I don't doubt it one bit. I just question player explanations after being busted. Don't most say it's a BP bat to put on a show for the fans by hitting bombs? Is this just an east excuse?

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That they were ineffective cheaters doesn't change the fact that they sincerely try to be. Like the monkey ******** drinking Pud Galvin. They were all trying to cheat, and just because they were wrong about it doesn't change their malfeasance.

I'm much more concerned with mens rea than actus reus. I'm also slightly unwilling to take mythbusters to be the paragon of the scientific method, though it gets it close most of the time.

I'd say corkers and PEDers have similar mens rea. Otherwise, they'd tell people they were corking their bat.

I'm just glad the integrity of the hall can be upheld. Corked bat, spit ball, sharpened cleats.. That's not cheating.. That's quirkiness!


I'm old Greg

Not saying they aren't trying to cheat and are any less wrong, just asking if it has been proven to not hit as far, why say they are BP bats to hit bombs? Also why practice with equipment you wouldn't use in a game? That also makes 0 sense to me as well.

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VandyDan said:

Because it seems prior to 2005, the two offenses were treated quite similarly.

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Except that this article states that Sosa got an 8 game suspension for his corked bat in 2003. How many games was he suspended for roids? Right, it wasn't even possible to be suspended for PEDs in 2003.

I'm sure the Mantle family will win this auction. I've seen the most ridiculous signed baseballs by Mantle and I've heard his family just buys them up and destroys them. I'm sure this is in the same category. They'll win it and destroy it or put it in some safe hidden place with all the other embarrassing items associated with his name.

No one can ever prove this was game used.

sportscardtheory said:

No player has ever been suspended for 50 or 100 games for a corked bat and no player has ever been permanently banned from baseball for it either, because not many really care all that much about the small cheats. That must be what you are missing.

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Cheating is cheating, xxxx. That must be what you are missing.

JoshHamilton said:

Cheating is cheating, xxxx. That must be what you are missing.

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And the sky is blue. What's your point. Is anyone saying that "cheating isn't cheating".

I don't think anyone is arguing that.

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VandyDan said:

That they were ineffective cheaters doesn't change the fact that they sincerely try to be. Like the monkey ******** drinking Pud Galvin. They were all trying to cheat, and just because they were wrong about it doesn't change their malfeasance.

I'm much more concerned with mens rea than actus reus. I'm also slightly unwilling to take mythbusters to be the paragon of the scientific method, though it gets it close most of the time.

I'd say corkers and PEDers have similar mens rea. Otherwise, they'd tell people they were corking their bat.

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When Pud Galvin did what he did, it wasnt considered cheating. Babe Ruth tried similar things. That would be like equating taking protien powder and cheating.

VandyDan said:

That they were ineffective cheaters doesn't change the fact that they sincerely try to be. Like the monkey ******** drinking Pud Galvin. They were all trying to cheat, and just because they were wrong about it doesn't change their malfeasance.

I'm much more concerned with mens rea than actus reus. I'm also slightly unwilling to take mythbusters to be the paragon of the scientific method, though it gets it close most of the time.

I'd say corkers and PEDers have similar mens rea. Otherwise, they'd tell people they were corking their bat.

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Sweet bejesus! Who let the 1L into the conversation? Seriously, tone down the Latin, we've got a lot of mouth-breathers in here