Sammy Sosa

Baseball Player

• Born: November 12, 1968
• Place of Birth: Consuelo, San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic

DOMINICAN-BORN BASEBALL PLAYER

While playing for the Chicago Cubs during the 1990s and early 2000s, Sammy Sosa was one of the most successful hitters in professional baseball. He broke many longstanding hitting and home run records, but reports that he used performance-enhancing drugs later cast doubt on the legitimacy of his achievements.

AREAS OF ACHIEVEMENT: Baseball

Early Life and Career

Samuel Peralta Sosa was born in the Dominican Republic on November 12, 1968, in the town of Consuelo, though his birth records list his birthplace as the nearby town of San Pedro de Macorís. Sosa’s father, Juan Bautista Montero, worked in the sugarcane fields, while his mother, Lucrecia Sosa, worked as a maid and cook. After Juan Bautista died when Sosa was only six years old, the family struggled in poverty. Sosa and his siblings began working at an early age, with Sosa washing cars, selling oranges, and shining shoes. The family moved around a lot during those years in search of a better life and wages, before settling in San Pedro de Marcorís when Sosa was twelve.

Because Sosa was constantly working during his childhood, he did not have the time or financial means to play organized baseball, instead playing in the streets with balled-up rags and sticks for bats. He originally wanted to be a boxer, but focused on baseball once his talent for the sport became apparent when he was fourteen.

Despite his limited experience, Sosa quickly drew the attention of several Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. Initially Francisco Acevedo, a scout for the Philadelphia Phillies, attempted to sign Sosa at the age of fifteen, but the contract was never finalized. The next year, Omar Minaya, a scout for the Texas Rangers, signed Sosa to his first contract with the team. After several years in the minor leagues, Sosa made his major league debut with the Rangers on June 16, 1989. Sosa’s time with the Rangers was short, as he was traded to the Chicago White Sox on July 29. He spent the following two seasons playing for the White Sox and their minor league affiliates before being traded again before the 1992 season to the Chicago Cubs.

Success in the Major Leagues

Sosa started the 1992 season as the Cubs’ centerfielder but was plagued by injuries throughout the year. He missed thirty-four games with a broken metacarpal bone in his right hand after being hit by a pitch on June 12, and ten days after he returned, had his season ended when a foul ball broke his left ankle. In 1993, however, Sosa emerged as a power hitter, hitting 33 home runs while playing mostly in right field. From 1993 to 1997, he averaged 34 home runs a year, with a high of 40 in 1996.

Sosa saw an exponential increase in power during the 1998 season, when he was involved in a home run race with Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals to see who would be the first to surpass Roger Maris's single-season home run record of 61. The chase came to a climax when McGwire became the first to reach 62 home runs in a game against the Cubs and, in a display of sportsmanship, Sosa ran in from the outfield and greeted McGwire after he finished rounding the bases. McGwire finished the season with 70 home runs, but Sosa also surpassed Maris’s record with 66 home runs. The chase drew national attention and dramatically increased Sosa’s popularity. Sosa’s offensive prowess that season helped power the Cubs to a playoff berth and garnered him the National League's Most Valuable Player award. The next season, Sosa again surpassed 60 home runs by hitting 63, but so did McGwire, who hit 65. Sosa led the National League in home runs during the 2000 season and hit 64 the year after.

Sosa started to fall out of favor with the Cubs’ fans and organization during the 2003 season, even though the team won the National League Central Division title that year. On June 3, 2003, Sosa was ejected from a game when it was discovered that he had been using a corked bat, which gives a power advantage when hitting. Sosa claimed that his use of the bat was accidental, as the corked bat was intended for use during batting practice to please fans. Several of Sosa’s other bats were tested, but none were found to be corked. After an appeal, Sosa was suspended for seven games.

The next season, Sosa sneezed violently before a game in San Diego, triggering severe back spasms that resulted in his being placed on the disabled list. Sosa also asked to sit out the last game of that season and controversially left before its conclusion. After the 2004 season, he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles.

Sosa had one of his worst seasons in 2005, batting only .221 with 14 home runs. He became a free agent after the season and, not finding any potential offers satisfactory, declined to sign with any major league team. For the 2007 season Sosa signed a minor-league deal with the Texas Rangers and made the team’s opening-day roster. Used primarily as a designated hitter, Sosa performed well, recording 21 home runs and 92 runs batted in. He also hit his 600th home run, becoming the fifth player to reach that mark, on June 20. After the 2007 season, Sosa did not sign with a major league team. He announced his retirement in May 2008, but later declared his intent to play in the World Baseball Classic and the 2009 Major League Baseball season. Sosa was not selected for the Dominican Republic’s team, and again announced his retirement from professional baseball on June 3, 2009.

Retirement and Steroid Controversy

Beginning in the early 2000s, allegations emerged that Sosa, along with many other players in the MLB, had used performance-enhancing drugs. As the controversy over steroids in baseball heightened, Sosa and other power hitters found themselves the subject of investigations. Sosa flatly denied using any illegal substances and testified to his innocence before Congress. While Sosa was not named in the 2007 Mitchell Report, which was the result of a years-long government investigation into steroid use in the MLB, he was accused of using performance-enhancing drugs in a separate 2006 affidavit. Additionally, the same year that he retired, allegations surfaced that Sosa had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. At the time, the test was supposed to be anonymous, but a source leaked it to the media. It was not clarified what drug he had supposedly taken; although this exposed Sosa to a perjury charge for his earlier testimony, no legal action was taken against him. By the mid-2010s, many other baseball stars linked to performance enhancing drugs, including McGwire and Barry Bonds, had returned to MLB organizations as coaches or special assistants, but Sosa remained estranged from the Cubs, despite his historic association with the team.

The stigma of being associated with the steroid scandal tainted Sosa's legacy as one of the greatest power hitters of all time. He became eligible for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013, but did not receive enough votes through the ballot process, which is the most common way for players to enter the Hall of Fame. In subsequent years, Sosa also failed to receive enough votes from the sportswriters who serve on the voting committee. After being rejected once again in 2022, his final year of ballot eligibility, Sosa lost his opportunity to be inducted as a player into the Hall of Fame through the ballot process.

Sosa remained estranged from the Cubs following his retirement as the allegations about the use of performance enhancing drugs continued to taint his career. Even a 2024 return visit to Chicago for an autograph signing event did not result in a reconcilation between the club and their once-star player. Sosa continued to vehemently deny any use of performance enhancing drugs.

Impact

Although his career was tarnished by allegations of steroid use, Sosa remains one of the most prolific home run hitters of all time, and was one of the top players in the MLB during the 1990s and early 2000s. Sosa retired with a career total of 609 home runs, and was the first player to hit 60 or more home runs in three different seasons. The 1998 pursuit of Maris’s single-season home run record by both Sosa and McGwire drew national attention and helped reinvigorate baseball after the 1994 players’ strike. As the Cubs’ top hitter, Sosa led the team to playoff berths in 1998 and 2003. He garnered a number of individual awards, including the 1998 National League most valuable player award, six Silver Slugger Awards (given to the top hitter at each position in both leagues), and seven All-Star selections. In 1998, in recognition of his humanitarian efforts, he received the Roberto Clemente Award.

Bibliography

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Canseco, José. Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big. New York: Regan, 2005.

Miller, Scott. "Sammy Sosa in Exile: There's Silence Rather than Apology from Former Cubs Star." Bleacher Report. Bleacher Report, 25 Feb 2015. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

"Sammy Sosa." MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media, 2016. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.

Sosa, Sammy, and Marcos Bretón. Sammy Sosa: An Autobiography. New York: Warner, 2000.

Stebbins, Tim. "Sosa Not Elected to HOF, Falls Off Writer's Ballot." NBC Sports, 25 Jan. 2022, www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/hall-fame-ex-cubs-sammy-sosa-not-elected-falls-ballot. Accessed 18 Feb. 2022.

Westcott, Rich. Great Home Runs of the Twentieth Century. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2001.