Baseball: Sosa suspended

Major League Baseball has suspended Sammy Sosa for eight games for using an illegal corked bat. The power-hitting star had filed an appeal and would continue playing in the interim, the Chicago Cubs said.

Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said "some punishment is in order" for Sosa, but did not suggest what it should be.

He said that Sosa had been "upfront and honest" and "everything that was checked out from his past has come up clean".

Sosa's bat splintered last week during a game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, revealing a hollowed-out, cork-filled centre. The forbidden alteration is designed to add speed and distance to a hit ball by allowing the batter to swing the bat faster.

An examination of 76 bats in his possession found no others were corked.