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CNN Live At Daybreak

Wild Week For Sammy Sosa

Aired June 09, 2003 - 06:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: What a wild week for Sammy Sosa. The Chicago Cubs' slugger is making headlines for another move at the plate, this one positive, though. He got his 2,000 career hit in Sunday's game against the Yankees. He was playing on appeal. Sosa was suspended for eight games on Friday for using a corked bat. But he gets to play until major league baseball officials hear his appeal.
But should he just take his punishment and move on?

We have Marco Breton on the phone right now.

He works for the "Sacramento Bee" and helped Sosa write his autobiography.

Good morning.

MARCUS BRETON, COLUMNIST, "SACRAMENTO BEE": Good morning.

COSTELLO: So, should Sammy Sosa just take the punishment and get it out of the way?

BRETON: I'm sure he will now, you know. I think nobody in baseball -- probably that, that would probably include the commissioner -- nobody wanted him to miss the Yankees series this weekend in Wrigley. It was a huge financial success for the teams and I just think that people wanted him to play and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if today we wake up and find that he dropped his appeal and he'll just serve his suspension now that the series is over.

COSTELLO: Well, we'll be watching.

You know, Sosa hit number 2,000. The pressure on him to hit right now must be enormous.

Do you think it is? Is he out to prove something?

BRETON: Well, I think at this point he's just out to, you know, hopefully enter a new week and put this last week behind him. It really is, you know, knowing what I know about Sammy and how really sensitive he is to criticism and how really sensitive he is to his image and how he's portrayed, I know it's been a horrendous week for him. And I think at this point he would just love to get the suspension behind him and start hitting some home runs and make people forget about what's happened.

COSTELLO: Hey, you know, Jim Palmer suggested he take a lie detector test. Should he do that?

BRETON: Maybe he should, after each home run, instead of doing that little hop he does, break each bat over his knee and sort of show, hold it up to show it to people who will see that there is no cork in it. You know, he's going to hear about it. That's just the way, that's just the way our culture is and that's just the way it is when you're a superstar, when you stumble a little bit, you're going to hear about it. And it just goes with the territory.

COSTELLO: You know, Palmer also suggests asking Sosa who made the bat? I mean is there someone out there making cork bats for professional ballplayers?

BRETON: Well, you keep hearing these -- there's a lot of skullduggery involved with these things and, you know -- of course, you know, every player you talk to says well, I've never done it myself, but I know guys who do. But you hear reports of, you know, little mom and pop places in Florida or in Illinois making these bats. The funny thing about Sosa's particular bat is that it seems to have disappeared. You know, you don't know where it went at this point.

But it's, you know, it was just one of those things and it's been an amazing story for all of us to follow.

COSTELLO: Boy, you're not kidding.

Thank you for joining us this morning.

We sure appreciated it.

And we'll keep our eye on Sammy Sosa to see if he will drop his appeal.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired June 9, 2003 - 06:21   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: What a wild week for Sammy Sosa. The Chicago Cubs' slugger is making headlines for another move at the plate, this one positive, though. He got his 2,000 career hit in Sunday's game against the Yankees. He was playing on appeal. Sosa was suspended for eight games on Friday for using a corked bat. But he gets to play until major league baseball officials hear his appeal.
But should he just take his punishment and move on?

We have Marco Breton on the phone right now.

He works for the "Sacramento Bee" and helped Sosa write his autobiography.

Good morning.

MARCUS BRETON, COLUMNIST, "SACRAMENTO BEE": Good morning.

COSTELLO: So, should Sammy Sosa just take the punishment and get it out of the way?

BRETON: I'm sure he will now, you know. I think nobody in baseball -- probably that, that would probably include the commissioner -- nobody wanted him to miss the Yankees series this weekend in Wrigley. It was a huge financial success for the teams and I just think that people wanted him to play and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if today we wake up and find that he dropped his appeal and he'll just serve his suspension now that the series is over.

COSTELLO: Well, we'll be watching.

You know, Sosa hit number 2,000. The pressure on him to hit right now must be enormous.

Do you think it is? Is he out to prove something?

BRETON: Well, I think at this point he's just out to, you know, hopefully enter a new week and put this last week behind him. It really is, you know, knowing what I know about Sammy and how really sensitive he is to criticism and how really sensitive he is to his image and how he's portrayed, I know it's been a horrendous week for him. And I think at this point he would just love to get the suspension behind him and start hitting some home runs and make people forget about what's happened.

COSTELLO: Hey, you know, Jim Palmer suggested he take a lie detector test. Should he do that?

BRETON: Maybe he should, after each home run, instead of doing that little hop he does, break each bat over his knee and sort of show, hold it up to show it to people who will see that there is no cork in it. You know, he's going to hear about it. That's just the way, that's just the way our culture is and that's just the way it is when you're a superstar, when you stumble a little bit, you're going to hear about it. And it just goes with the territory.

COSTELLO: You know, Palmer also suggests asking Sosa who made the bat? I mean is there someone out there making cork bats for professional ballplayers?

BRETON: Well, you keep hearing these -- there's a lot of skullduggery involved with these things and, you know -- of course, you know, every player you talk to says well, I've never done it myself, but I know guys who do. But you hear reports of, you know, little mom and pop places in Florida or in Illinois making these bats. The funny thing about Sosa's particular bat is that it seems to have disappeared. You know, you don't know where it went at this point.

But it's, you know, it was just one of those things and it's been an amazing story for all of us to follow.

COSTELLO: Boy, you're not kidding.

Thank you for joining us this morning.

We sure appreciated it.

And we'll keep our eye on Sammy Sosa to see if he will drop his appeal.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com