In my mind, judgment on the Sammy Sosa corked-bat incident really had to be withheld until the results of major-league baseball’s examination of the 76 bats they confiscated from his clubhouse was concluded.

The conclusion: they’re all clean.

This goes a long way toward backing up Sosa’s story that he unintentionally used a corked bat he had reserved for batting practice. And the truth is that if he had been corking he’d have been found out a long time ago. Bats seem to break in every game and I can remember at least a dozen previous occasions when Sosa’s splintered bat went flying into the infield.

Sosa made a very expensive mistake. He’ll still be suspended for a number of games and he should be ashamed for allowing his ego and desire to please the fans in batting practice for interfering with what should be his primary goal: helping his team win.

The risk of confusing a BP bat with a game bat is not worth it. He of course knows that now. But all the talk of Sosa’s reputation being ruined seems a little overhyped to me. After all, corking a bat doesn’t really do much to help a batter hit.

Sixty-two years old, and still chooglin’ on down the road.

The Tribune’s Eric Gwinn had a nice story in Tuesday’s paper about the different game-casting sites and how they’re put together.

I guess I hadn’t thought much about it, but each game is scored by a human being who works for MLB.com or ESPN or whomever. And they track the game pitch-by-pitch, which is actually more intensive than you might think.

The one thing I wonder is why you can’t just listen to the game on the radio? I guess some workplaces are not too tolerant of that. It doesn’t seem to be a problem at my workplace. Heh, heh.

Yes, you do, Bob. And I plan to be mightily amused by whatever comes of your collaboration with Martin Scorsese on a documentary.

The evil Mets’ star player, the evil, evil Mike Piazza may miss the rest of the season with a torn right groin muscle.

Carlos Zambrano pitched a great game today. Unfortunately, he gave up the only run the Cardinals needed to beat him when he threw a ball into centerfield.

It was the 12th error this year by the Cubs’ pitching staff. Aargh! Add to my agony that the evil, evil Yankees beat the Red Sox tonight to retake first place clear.

On the positive side of the ledger, however: The evil, lazy Lakers are gone, which kind of sucks the interest out of the NBA playoffs for me. I guess I’d like to see David Robinson get another ring before retiring. Why not?

Also, the White Sox are stinking up the joint. They are four games below .500, and manager Jerry Manuel is likely to get yanked sometime soon. Heh, heh, heh.

The Tribune’s Phil Rogers suggests that it’s not just the toe or the beaning that have slowed Sammy Sosa’s production this year, but that he may well be on the down side of his career. To wit:

Few people seem to have picked up on this, but the increasing rate of injuries and a downturn in performance suggest we very well may have seen his last 50-homer season.

When asked about the critique, manager Dusty Baker of course discounted it, but it makes some sense. More from Rogers:

In the Cubs’ final 41 games last season, Sosa hit six homers in 118 at-bats, finishing the season with 49. He missed nine games with injuries to his neck and back after a collision with Mark bellhorn and seemed to be pressing as he stalled on short of 500 for his career.

When he went onto the disabled list Saturday, Sosa had six homers in 35 games in 2003. It had taken him 122 at-bats to get those homers, including just one in his last 66 at-bats. …

He’s not as reliable anymore. His homer ratio has jumped from one every 10 at-bats to one every 20.

Rogers’ larger point is that this would be alarming except for the Cubs’ surfeit of talented young pitching and in fact may be good for Sosa’s teammates, who might begin relying on each other “instead of always genuflecting in his direction.”

Perhaps. I think Sosa, even if he never has another 50-homer season, will be a solid run producer for at least a couple more years and will probably end his career with the Cubs. That’s fine.

The important thing, as Rogers said, is the pitching. That’s what will make the Cubs a perennial contender. While the Braves may not have had all right the offensive pieces to the puzzle to put together the kind of string the evil, evil Yankees have managed, the reason they’ve won 12 straight division titles is the pitching.

Everything else is kind of interchangeable. You can use the pitching to trade for a run producer, and you can dangle the promise of a bona fide chance, year after year, at a world championship to lure bit-hitting free agents to town.

I hope Sosa is part of a pennant-winning Cubs team and I hope Rogers is wrong. But if he’s right, it’s not the end of the Cubs’ chances. It’s only the beginning.

One can only hope the Spurs, now up 2-0, will put an end Shaq and Kobe’s three-year run.

Spurs, Kings, whoever. Just not the Lakers. Please, not the evil, evil Lakers.

You loved it in gym class, now experience it online. All right, so the site’s lame. But still … it’s pickleball!

The game was co-created by a U.S. Congressman. Who said politicans were all bad? (Oh, right, that was me.)

Most interesting:

How did Pickleball get it’s [sic] name?

Pickles was the family dog that would chase after the errant balls and then hide in the bushes, thus Pickle’s ball which was later shortened to the namesake of Pickleball.

All righty, then.

Great pitch, no hit. The Cubs have scored only one run in the last two days off the much vaunted Padres pitching staff, and have lost by a total of 4-1.

Another great outing, this time by Clement, wasted. Good thing I wasn’t getting my hopes up! Right?

I should not be letting the evil, evil Yankees’ red-hot start (17-3) and instead should be delighted by how well the Red Sox (14-6) and especially the Cubs (13-7) are doing.

And yet … I’m not. What can I say? I’m bitter. I admit it. Is that the first step toward recovery? I hope not.

UPDATE: At least the Mets suck.