I mention this often, but many times it's my girlfriend (no sports fan) who helps me understand the reality of a sporting event.*Noticing my lackluster reaction to Sammy*Yeah, I guess it is. Only Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays have more home runs than Sosa. Only Ruth reached the historic mark faster. Nobody has a similar stretch than Sosa's run from '98-'01. Sosa is 24th all-time in RBI's. Strictly from a statistical accomplishment perspective, Sammy Sosa is one of the best players of our lifetime. But ...
"Wait, so Sammy Sosa is one of only 5 players to have 600 HR's? That's really impressive, right?"
But ... there's that whole other grey area that gets in the way. Have followed nearly each and every move of Sosa's accent to greatness, I'll never forget his performance, or lack thereof, in front of Congress. Much like McGwire, Sosa's momentary inability to speak English was his way of letting us know he'd had assistance en route to his record accomplishments. Just like McGwire's 70 needs an *, Sosa's 600 unfortunately gets the same treatment. And no Sosa discussion can be official without some mention of *cork*.
Sammy Sosa's numeric outputs are indeed impressive. But considering the whole situation, is he a hall of famer? I said no on Big Mac, I have to say no here. The numbers are impressive, but the numbers also show an impressive cover-up.




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