If you are a huge Cubs fan you might want to save your pennies and get ready to own a piece of history. Former Cubs pitcher Mike Remlinger has put a piece of the broken barrel of the corked bat used by slammin Sammy Sosa during the 2003 season.

The bat, which shattered in two pieces when Sosa grounded out to second base in the first inning of the game on June 3, 2003, went on an online auction block through Schulte Auctions on Oct. 1, and the current bid is $5,050. Remlinger figures the bids should reach as high as $15,000 by the end of the auction on Oct. 31.

“There’s enough crazy Cubs fans out there that if somebody has a collection, be it Harry Caray’s Restaurant or one of the bigger bars in the area or just someone who has a personal collection, it’s definitely a great item to talk about,” Remlinger said Tuesday on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000.

Remlinger who was a relief pitcher later saw the broken bat sticking out from beneath a bag on the floor of the tunnel between the dugout and clubhouse after the game. So he took it since he figured it would only hurt Sosa and the team if the league inspected the piece of bat.

Remlinger said the amount of cork in the bat likely contributed to it breaking. “There was a lot [of cork],” Remlinger said. “Where it broke is about halfway down to the label and so from halfway from the label to the top of the bat, the whole barrel was still completely intact. They obviously drill from the top of the bat down, and it was corked below the label. I think that’s why it broke.”

Remlinger did infact try to reach out to Sosa and his people. He originally heard back that Sosa wanted the bat but never heard anything after that. So Remlinger figured the best thing to do since it was his was auction it off.

He did defend Sosa though by stating, “I was shocked that Sammy even had a corked bat. You could have asked me a thousand times over, and I would have said ‘No way. Not a chance.’ I just didn’t think it was something that would make a big difference.”

Sosa is connected to using both steriods and a corked bat which will likely prevent him from entering the Hall of Fame.

Information from ESPN.com was used in this article.