Sammy Sosa Approaches 600 Homers
The Beloved But Controversial Slugger Will Be Fifth to Reach Mark
Apr 27, 2007
On a cool, rainy afternoon in Cleveland this afternoon, the Indians beat the Texas Rangers 9-4. But during the game, Texas slugger Sammy Sosa hit two home runs, his fifth and sixth of the season. Or more importantly, the 593rd and 594th of his career. That's right, Sammy Sosa is just six home runs away from joining Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays in the very exclusive and very high priced 600 home run club.
A high price is what each of these five paid to get in the club. Hank Aaron suffered racially-motivated death threats as he blew by 600 and then approached Babe Ruth's career record. Both he and Willie Mays faced racial discrimination and white bigotry throughout their entire careers. That must have been incredibly taxing to their minds and bodies, to have to do your job every day with some loud-mouth racists in the stands hurling epithets your way. Yet they still were able to out-play everyone on the baseball field. Ruth's price was paid off the field as much as on it, with his drinking and abuse of his body leading to an early death just 13 years after he retired. Bonds and Sosa are both stuck under the same cloud, an ugly shroud that calls into question the legitimacy of their home run records.
But Sosa paid an even greater price than just the credibility of his baseball records. He may have suffered a permanent injury to his credibility as a person and his legacy as a ballplayer. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Sammy Sosa was one of the most beloved players in the game. He had it all. He hit with flash, he hit with great power. He also hit with amazing consistency. Sammy is one of just three players who have hit 35 or more home runs and collected 100 or more RBI in nine consecutive seasons. He is also the only player to swat more than 60 home runs in three different seasons.
Sosa became a star in Chicago in 1995 when he hit 36 home runs and knocked in 119 runs for the Cubs. He became a national sensation when he hit 20 home runs in June of 1998, and then dueled Mark McGwire, swing for swing, right to the end in their now legendary home run battle. Sammy lost the race to Big Mac, 70 to 66, but he won the adoration, respect and admiration of (literally) milions of Major League Baseball fans.
Sosa maintained his national popularity by hitting more than 63 dingers in 1999 and 64 in 2001. Sammy was also the center piece of every All-Star Home Run Derby during his dominant years. He won the event in 2000, and once, in the 2002 contest at Miller Park in Milwaukeee, he hit a ball 528 feet.
All of these accomplishments, and even more importantly, the sheer delight and vigor with which Sosa played the game, endeared the man to baseball and to America.
Then the steroid scandal hit.
Sosa has never admitted that he took steroids or human growth hormone. Nor has he ever been charged with taking such substances. Nor has he ever tested positive for the juice. Sammy even denied taking steroids during the now-famous congressional hearing in March 2005.
But some argue that the only evidence they need happened right before their eyes. When Sosa first came up in 1989, he was a six-foot, 165 pound, scrawny, speedy outfielder who was only capable of hitting an average of 12 home runs and 45 RBI in his first five seasons.
Sosa then grew into a rock solid 220 pounds by 1998, and over those next four seasons he averaged 61 home runs and 149 RBI. That is quite a dramatic jump, both in terms of razor sharp muscularity and offensive production.
Then, after baseball instituted its current steroid policy for the 2005 season, Sosa appeared at spring training for the Baltimore Orioles a much smaller version of his old self. WIth the mucles, so went the power. Sosa hit just 14 home runs for the Orioles that year, and didn't play at all during the 2006 season. It appeared that Sosa, like McGwire before him, was fading away quietly into the night, with the steroid questions never answered and his former popularity now greatly diminished.
However, in a surprise move, Sosa returned this spring with the Texas Rangers, on a minor league contract, no less. But he made the team by hitting the cover off the ball in spring training. So far this 2007 MLB season, he's hit pretty well, cracking 6 home runs and 18 RBI in the first 19 games.
As he approaches the 600 home run club, there are many reasons to look askance at his accomplishments. Many fans still want an apology, or at least an explanation. They haven't gotten one. They may not ever get one. But no matter what Sosa did, and no matter where fans and experts want to place his baseball accomplishments, no one can deny that during an era when many players were getting help in the form of injectable muscles, Sammy Sosa was the most exciting and probably the best hitter in the game.
