Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey & 600 HRs
600 Home Runs Will Mean Very Different Things For These Players
Jun 25, 2007
Sammy Sosa Hits Home Run Number 600
On Wednesday, June 20, 2007, at the Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, Sammy Sosa became just the fifth player in Major League Baseball history to hit 600 career home runs. In reaching this milestone, he joined four legends of the game who had also hit 600 homers: Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays. No one could deny that Sosa had just done something amazing, that he had reached a plateau inhabited only by the game's true immortals. By extension, he too should become an instant legend, a sudden but timeless hero of the great game of baseball. But he didn't.
How Legendary Home Runs Are Usually Celebrated
Many will recall that on September 8, 1998, Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris's single season home run record when he lined a Steve Trachsel fastball over the left field fence in old Busch Stadium. Once the ball cleared the fence, bedlam ensued. Sosa, who was still neck-and-neck with McGwire on the home run charts, came in from right field to give Big Mac a hug worthy of the historic blast. Bud Selig was there and gave a speech. In the stands were the sons and widow of Maris, whom McGwire hugged and wept upon in the first row of box seats.
The celebration went on for twenty to thirty minutes and, whether you were a baseball fan or not, you watched, aware that something truly miraculous had just occurred. After the game, McGwire held an emotional press conference that was attended by hundreds from the press and watched by millions on ESPN. The moment was played again and again and eventually won an ESPY award. Newspaper columnists and beat writers celebrated that homer (and then no. 70) almost daily. McGwire was instantly raised to immortal status. Many baseball experts credit that home run, and the entire 1998 home run race as saving the game of baseball from the disastrous effects of the 1994 strike.
By Comparison, Sosa's 600th Home Run Went Uncelebrated and Almost Unnoticed
But after Sammy hit his 600th last week, he didn't see a celebration that remotely resembled the hoedown from nine years earlier. Yes, his teammates mobbed him at home plate. Yes, the home run was acknowledged and he received a very nice standing ovation. But there was no official celebration from baseball or speech by the Comissioner. There were none of the three living members of the 600 Club. There was no weepy press conference, no heavy promotion by ESPN, and although it was a prominent story in newspapers and on web sites for a few days, that even was soon forgotten. Of course, anyone who has followed the game the past three years knows exactly why that is.
Ken Griffey, Jr. is Closing in on 600 As Well
In sharp contrast to Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr.'s approach to the 600 home run mark has generated a great deal of excitement and anticipation for the player, his team and the game itself. Griffey, of course, was the man who was supposed to shatter Hank Aaron's all-time record. When he was 30, it seemed that he would do just that. By the end of the 2000 season, Griffey was still not yet 31years old, and he'd already put 440 baseballs over Major League fences. Aaron's record seemed a foregone conclusion, 800 home runs were even more likely, and 900 was not out of the question for the kid they called Junior Griffey.
Then fate intervened. And for some reason, fate seemed to really have it in for Mr. Griffey. That must have been it, because Griffey suffered season-ending injuries every year from 2001 through 2005, which caused him to miss a total 420 baseball games. Since Junior has averaged a home run every 4.08 games in his career, it is reasonable to conclude that he lost 103 home runs to his injuries. So, in a perfect world, he could be approaching 700, not 600.
But that doesn't really matter. Because Girffey's feel good story, and the positive attention it is generating, is based primarily on his years of injuries, and his ability to repeatedly bounce back from adversity to still, somehow, succeed. Griffey is a metaphor for second chances. He embodies the myth of having something so dear and then losing it, but eventually getting a second chance to win it back.
Griffey was knocked down, but perservered, even when fate (probably) denied him his rightful place as the best ballplayer who ever lived. He pushed on when fate snatched away his chance at the home run record. He kept going. He kept going in the face of ownership, fan, and media frustration with him, his alleged surly attitude and his injuries. The man kept right on trying and getting back on the field.
And now, he's fully back, hitting .290 with 21 home runs and 44 RBI by June 24. And now, he's only 16 home runs away from 600. When he reaches that vaulted plateau and becomes the sixth member of such an august club of batsmen, one suspects that he will be given a long, loud, boisterous celebration. He will have earned it.
Sadly, no one will know if Sammy Sosa really earned it, too. And no one will know whether it was right or wrong to deny him the celebration that Griffey will surely receive.
