And then the bat — apparently not marked with enough distinction to prevent such a "mix-up" from occurring — accidentally found its way into Sosa's few game bats. Um, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Not only is Sosa a martyr, he's also unlucky. Imagine the odds of having that bat break the first time he brought it up to the plate accidentally. No really, imagine the odds.

And here I thought my upcoming weekend trip to Chicago to see the Yanks play at Wrigley was going to be a snoozer. Little did I know that not only could I look forward to seeing Roger Clemens' 300th win and 4,000th strikeout live (and celebrating at Coyote Ugly Chicago later), but maybe I'll catch Sammy shooting up the 'roids for us fans' benefit. You know, just for batting practice.

(The Sosa bat story was the lead Tuesday evening on all three major online sports news sites — ESPN.com, CNNSI.com and CBS.Sportsline.com — but was just a related link off MLB.com's top story: Twins Top Giants at Pac Bell. Guess no one in those offices was talking about it as much as the Twins.)

Other Sports Links:

• Classy Freddie Blassie (1918-2003) — The Fashion Plate of Wrestling, one of the great pro wrestling villains ever and a hilarious character who coined the term "pencil-neck geek," passed away Monday. Everyone's favorite meal partner, he was the subject of Andy Kaufman's Breakfast With Blassie and once sat at the other end of a table from me at a Japanese steak house called Noda's in White Plains, N.Y. He autographed menus for me and my brother. That was classy of him.

• Ten Reasons to Watch the NBA Finals — You know it's a less-than-sexy matchup when you need to convince fans why they should watch a Finals series. Could you imagine reading Ten Reasons to Watch the Eagles-Steelers Super Bowl?