Last night was a great night. The Cubs lost...surprise surprise. But if there was going to be one contribution by another player against the Cubs, the best one happened last night.
Sammy Sosa entered the game with 599 career home runs. He will enter his next game with 600. You know the names of the other guys in Major League history with 600 home runs? I do: Aaron, Bonds, Ruth, Mays. Sosa.
Many of you are probably not Cubs fans. That's fine, you know I don't hold that against you. You probably are however, fans of baseball in some way. Regardless if you like any other team besides the Yankees, baseball was a dying sport in the mid-90's. In 1994, two of the best teams we have seen in a while, the Chicago White Sox and Montreal Expos, were poised to make runs at the World Series. The Expos had this 22 year old named Martinez who struck out 142 batters in 24 games. This other guy who played for the Padres, some guy named Gwynn, was hitting .394 on the last day of the season. Only thing is that the last day of the season wasn't in the fall thanks to the strike and this Gwynn guy didn't get a shot to go after .400. 1994 could have been one of the most exciting in MLB history. Instead, it nearly killed it.
Then, 1998 happened. Mark McGwire and...Ken Griffey Jr. got off to fast starts and looked to be poised to make a run at the record of 61 homers in a season held by Roger Maris. Then June happened. Sammy Sosa set a major league record by hitting 20 homers in the month of June. From then on, McGwire and Sosa ran after the record...when Sosa would homer, seemingly in his next at-bat, McGwire would get him back. As we all know, McGwire got to 62 first, finished with 70 - Sosa with 66. Sosa also hit .308 and drove in 158(!) runs while scoring 134. The Cubs went on the make the playoffs.
The 98 season was arguably Sammy's best, and arguably one of the best offensive seasons by any player in history. But his chase of the record with McGwire saved baseball. McGwire, the perennial wild card with the media (Bonds aside) was average with the press and fans. Sosa on the other hand, didn't really know anything different than to just have fun. He embraced the spotlight, kept on hitting, and always had a laugh for you. Yeah, he may not be the brightest bulb in your set of track lighting, but the guy was an entertainer, and baseball needed that in '98. When McGwire hit his 62 home run, against the Cubs, Sosa came in from the outfield to congratulate McGwire in one of the single greatest sports moments I have ever seen. Two rivals sharing a moment of triumph for only one of them. Both doing it with class and smiles. Never in sports have I ever seen anything like this. I don't think many have. And it was the chase, and the class shared by the two chasers that brought baseball back. Back to being what Sammy Sosa would most likely describe it if he had one word to: fun.
Sosa is a lot like my boy Brett Favre. Both play the games hard, and appear to have the most fun. This is what sports are about...fun. Before we get into some more stats...you know what his most impressive ones are? In 1995/1997/1999, he led the league in games played. In 1998 and 2001 he was 9th and 8th...missing a total of 5 games in each of those two years. That's a value.
Sosa is going to the Hall of Fame. There have been eight 60+home runs seasons in MLB history. Sosa has had three of them (I dare you to name the others). From 1998-2003, he was arguably the most feared hitter in the National League and the best right handed hitter in baseball (give or take Manny). The guy has simply had an incredible career. Throw out the steroid use allegations, the corked bat...in fact we were all kind of ready for Sammy to move on after 2004. But in the end, you remember your past. Sammy will always go down as one of the truly loved players in Cubs history, and the shot of McGwire and Sosa after McGwire's 62nd homer is an eternal image in the history of baseball. The summer that two men in an incredible race saved America's past time. Needless to say, Sammy was the MVP in runaway fashion. Mickey Morandini received one vote.
We have all had our issues with Sammy Sosa in the past, regardless of what they were about. I don't think Sammy Sosa would have ever had any issues with us about anything. The guy loves baseball and he loves life. He carries that emotion with him and instills his love to baseball fans wherever he goes, better than most being that there aren't too many parks he hasn't homered in. There hasn't been a superstar in the past 10 years like Sammy...who leaves the business at the door and deals with the press as if they were his friends. Oh yeah, and he's played a little bit. I once heard a line at a baseball camp: "Home runs are a mistake. But, you make 40 mistakes a year, you'll make $6 million." Obviously, this didn't take inflation into account. Yesterday, Sosa made his 600th $6 million mistake of his career against one of the only teams he had never homered against, playing for the team whom he homered first...on the network who televised most of his greatest blasts, against the team wearing the uniform that he will be remembered for adorning. It really couldn't have been a more perfect moment for a guy who has given so much to the game of baseball.
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