What Sammy Sosa means to me

By Mike Glab

I was born in 1984, so the Cubs baseball I knew wasn’t great at all. I loved the Cubs, but I didn’t know why. Maybe it’s because I love baseball and they were the team to root for in my household.

I was born less than a mile from Wrigley Field, so maybe the ballpark has something to do with it too. It blends in perfectly with the neighborhood. There were some great Cubs players in my early youth: Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, Andre Dawson and Greg Maddux.

But from a pure entertainment standpoint, nobody was better than Sammy Sosa.

To begin his Cubs career, Sosa had the mystique of being an absolute steal of a trade from the White Sox. He was a 30-30 threat and he had a cannon of an arm, regularly registering double-digit assists from right field. In 1996, he hit 40 home runs by late August and may have reached 50 if not for being derailed by injury. The next year he hit 36. Then June 1998 happened. Out of nowhere Sosa hit 20 home runs that month. To this day an MLB record. He thrust himself into the great home run race, that was originally supposed to between Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey Jr.

He stole the show with his electric personality and winning smile. He genuinely seemed like he was having the time of his life. He made the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry relevant for the first time in my Cubs viewing existence. The home run race with McGwire captivated the nation and may have saved baseball from the detrimental 1994 strike.

In 1998 Sosa ended up with 66 home runs, four shy of McGwire’s 70, but he led the Cubs to the 1998 Wild Card and won the National League MVP Award.

The 2003 season provided my least and most favorite Sosa moments. In June he was caught with a corked bat, just as the suspicions of steroid use were very much swirling around him. He was suspended 10 games, perhaps most disappointing as a fan is he didn’t need to cork his bat and he made a mistake he may have never been able to recover from in terms of credibility. Later that year after the Cubs triumphantly won the National League Central Division as underdogs they beat the Braves in five games to advance to the National League Championship Series and won a postseason series for the first time since 1945.

In the first game, the Cubs blew an early lead and were down two runs going into the 9th inning. With two outs and a runner on, Sosa launched a two-run, game-tying home run that almost evaporated Wrigley Field with delirium. It was an amazing moment that was short lived as the Cubs lost the game in extra innings. However, that was arguably Sosa’s most important home run as a Cub.

The 2004 season was a rough one as the Cubs collapsed in the final week of the season and squandered a wild-card lead. Sosa put up only 35 home runs and 80 RBI that year and in the final game of the season he requested to sit out and left early. For some people that was how they remember Sosa. In their eyes his legacy was forever tarnished.

But not for me and many other Cubs fans that grew up in the nineties. Sosa was far from perfect. He was an egomaniac, which bugged many of his teammates and some in the media. He played his music loudly in the locker room. He may have taken steroids in an era when many in baseball did. He unwisely used the aforementioned corked bat in 2003 and sat out and left his final game in a Cubs uniform early. He was traded to Baltimore in the 2005 offseason and the next year he actually hit his 600th career home run with Texas against the Cubs.

By then the magic was long gone. During his time in Chicago, I would argue Sosa was (a far) second in Chicago sports reverence to Michael Jordan during that time.

He was the only reason to watch the Cubs from 1996-2002. The Cubs didn’t ask too many questions because he was their best player, put up staggering numbers and helped put fans in the seats.

I was one of those fans. I believe Sosa is getting a raw deal from the Cubs. He should be embraced by the organization for his achievements in a Cubs uniform. Fans of my generation hold no resentment for alleged steroid use and his ego. He was the most entertaining Cub and he deserves his chance to be welcomed back to Chicago.

Featured Image: The Sporting News