Baseball used to sell tickets with the idea of spending the afternoon at the ballpark with family and a few hot dogs.

Now, baseball sells tickets with huge forearms and superstars who can hit more than 60 home runs in a season.

Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa is in question about whether his home run fame was all muscle or a lot of cork.

Since Sosa was caught using a corked bat, baseball fans and officials were quick to criticize him.

Corked bats are against the rules because they allegedly allow a player to swing the bat harder.

Sosa's bats still are being inspected, but he shouldn't have any cork bats to begin with.

He says he used the enhanced bats to impress fans during practice, but Sosa is known for a good swing and mammoth arms. That should hammer out enough homers without adding corked bats into the equation.

Sosa is responsible for making sure he is using the allowed equipment at the plate.

He's has been under heavy pressure ever since his home run dual with Mark McGwire in 1998. He has been forced to live up to the fame he produced then and his fans expect him to hit a dinger every time he steps up to the plate.

He could easily be called the most marketable man in baseball, or even the ambassador of bringing baseball back after the players strike of 1994, but those aren't good enough reasons to break the rules, not that there are any.

Sosa could be suspended, fined and will suffer a lifelong black eye on his legendary reputation.

America's pastime now deals with steroids or juiced balls. There have been deaths from performance-enhancing drugs and now this.

The important thing to remember, is Sosa doesn't need special bats to impress the public, he just needs to do what he always does - swing hard and sprint out to right field.

Baseball has somewhat forced itself to be more appealing to fans because they crave action. No one really wants to see a no-hitter or a myriad of walks.

People want a player to smash 10 home runs over the farthest wall and watch a team work together to make unbelievable triple plays.

But players aren't born naturally huge, so fans need to keep the pressure at a minimum and respect the athletes and the game.

As for Sosa, after the embarrassment dies down and he reaches his 700-home run milestone without using corked bats, he will have his redemption.