Care to buy a piece of infamy?
Former Chicago Cubs reliever Mike Remlinger is putting up for auction one of the most notorious pieces of wood – and cork – in Cubs’ history: the Sammy Sosa corked bat head.
When the bat broke in the first inning of the Cubs’ victory, exposing cork inside, Sosa was ejected and the handle of the bat was confiscated. But the fate of the roughly 20-inch barrel has been a mystery until now.
Turns out Cubs pitcher Mike Remlinger found it that night in the passageway between the dugout and the Cubs’ clubhouse and hid it in a fishing rod case above his locker.
“I didn’t know what was going to come out of it, or what [the league had on Sosa] going forward. But at the very least, I figured it wasn’t going to do anybody any good for the league to get their hands on that part of the bat,” Remlinger said Saturday. He is no longer in the league.
He kept the barrel in the fishing rod case for the rest of the year, and then took it home, where it remained until he decided to put it up for auction.
Remlinger reached out to Sosa last year to see whether he wanted the barrel back. Sosa’s assistant told him Sosa was interested, but Remlinger never heard back.
“At that point, I figured I could do whatever I want with it,” he said. CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.
The bat head is expected to fetch upwards of $50,000 via Schulte Auctions, and then disgrace its owner.