New York,
NY (July
1,
2003) --
Chicago Cubs baseball player Sammy Sosa is one of baseball's most prolific homerun-hitters, but with one swing of the bat on June 3, 2003 all of his accomplishments came into question. Sosa said using the corked bat was a mistake and was suspended for seven games by baseball officials. Fans were left to wonder how many of his 500 homeruns might have been hit with an illegal bat. Scholastic News Online, America's leading news source for kids, asked baseball's youngest fans to share their opinion on this incident.
The recent online poll conducted by Scholastic, the global children's publishing and media company, asked students in grades 1 through 8 if Sammy Sosa still deserves a place in the record books. The majority,
63 percent, voted that he does, while
37 percent felt otherwise. The online poll at Scholastic News Online (
www.scholastic.com/news) was conducted from June 9 to 24 2003, and received more than 46,000 responses.
Gabrielle B., age 13, from Alabama said, “I think he does deserve a place. …The guy's a respectable player and his other bats have tested negative for cork.”
“I think Sammy Sosa should still be in the record books, because he broke the record for home runs without using corked bats,” wrote
Philip H., age 11, from Virginia.
On the flip side,
Matthew D., age 7, from Texas said, “I don't think Sammy Sosa deserves a place in the record books because he could have been using the corked bat more than once and maybe this was the only time he was actually caught.”
The Scholastic poll is not based on a scientifically designed sample of the student population. It is designed as an educational activity to encourage student thought and debate, and to give students an opportunity to express their opinions. The respondents are self-selected, based on teachers who want their classes to participate and students who want to participate individually.
Scholastic is the world's largest publisher of educational magazines for grades pre-K through 12. Scholastic News, grade-by-grade classroom magazines for grades 1-6, gives kids their own thought-provoking, interactive news weekly through which they can understand current events and relate them to their world. Junior Scholastic is a bimonthly current events magazine for grades 6-8. The magazines' online companion Scholastic News (
www.scholastic.com/news) is a free resource for teachers, parents and children that can be used in the classroom or at home to discuss current events and develop students' understanding of how national and international news affects their lives. Scholastic News Online special reports have won high praise from teachers for sensitive coverage of major breaking news.