Please, put a cork in it

MIAMI -- It doesn't matter who the player is or how dazzling his stats are, some blunders are just too big to forget.

Think Jose Canseco will ever hear the end of that ball bouncing off his head and over the fence? Or Bill Buckner. It's almost 20 years later, and he's still razzed about that grounder going through his legs.

How about poor Fred Merkle? As if anyone remembers him for anything but failing to touch second base, ultimately costing the Giants the NL pennant in 1908.

Now there's Sammy Sosa. The country is caught up in the warm-and-fuzzy frenzy of the Chicago Cubs and their best playoff run in almost 60 years. And yet, every time he hits a monstrous home run -- like that one that bounced off the television camera booth way up in the Wrigley Field bleachers Wednesday night -- a four-letter word automatically crosses some people's minds.

Cork.

"Whatever happened to me, I just did what I had to do. I apologized, and we have to put that in the past," Sosa said Thursday as the Cubs worked out in preparation for Game 3 of the NLCS against the Florida Marlins.

"We've got to move forward."

It's been more than four months since that June night when Sosa's bat split apart, revealing a piece of cork just above the handle. Just about every bat he has touched has been poked and prodded, without any other signs of funny business turning up.

But some people are just never going to let it go.

Sosa was greeted with signs like "Scammy Sosa" and "Got Cork?" in some ballparks this year. White Sox fans chanted "Corky! Corky!" during the crosstown series.

And when his bat shattered Sunday night in Game 5 of the division series against the Atlanta Braves, the Turner Field fans chanted, "Check his bat!"

No one did, though TV was quick to get a closeup. Nothing but wood.

"I've seen him break about 200 bats, and only one had cork," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said. "But you're always going to have that, people looking at his bat.

"But it's not as bad as it was."

Yes, hitting home runs and taking your team to the playoffs can go a long way toward repairing a tarnished image.

Sosa had just six homers and 24 RBIs when the corked bat was found. He finished with 40 homers and 103 RBIs, becoming the first NL player with six straight 40-homer seasons.

The Cubs, meanwhile, won their first division title since 1989 and beat Atlanta to win their first postseason series since way back in 1908, their last World Series title.