Sammy Sosa

Over the next four years with the Cubs, Sosa continued to post some impressive statistics, but increasingly he came under fire for a seeming inability to focus his talents. Commentators criticized the Dominican for his "hot-dogging." His batting average increased to .300 in 1994, with a total of 25 home runs and 70 RBIs. The following year he walloped 36 home runs and 119 RBIs, although his batting average slipped to .267. Sporting News named Sosa to both its NL All-Star Team and Silver Slugger Team in 1995. His home run total soared to 40 in 1996 and almost certainly would have gone higher had his season not been cut short by a wrist injury. Despite boasts that he might hit the 60-home run mark in 1997, Sosa managed to post only 36 homers and 119 RBIs. On top of that, his batting average slipped to .250, and he logged more strikeouts than anyone else in the NL. Despite these weaknesses, Cubs general manager Ed Lynch seemed confident that Sosa soon would come into his own, and the team signed him to a four-year, $42.5 million contract.

Early in the 1998 season, it was clear from Sosa's performance that Lynch's faith had not been misplaced. In a four-week stretch from May 25 through June 21, Sosa hit 21 home runs in 22 games, one of the most remarkable achievements in major league history. He broke a 61-year-old major league record in a June game against the Detroit Tigers, hitting his 19th home run for the month. He finished the month with a total of home runs and by the All-Star break had run that number to 33 for the season. Sosa suddenly found himself in a race with Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals for the single-season home run record. The standing record was 61 homers, set by Roger Maris in 1961. Sosa and McGwire became the only two hitters in NL history to hit 30 or more home runs by July 1. Sosa confessed to a reporter a deep admiration for his rival in the home run race. "Mark McGwire is the man. Mark McGwire is in a different world. He's my idol. He's the man."

Sosa's feelings for McGwire did nothing to inhibit his push for the record. The two stayed neck and neck for much of the season. McGwire was the first to reach Maris's 61-homer mark. The red-headed Cardinal also was the first to set a new record. McGwire's 62nd homer came during his team's final game of the season with the Cubs. As Sosa watched from right field, McGwire blasted number 62 into the left field stands. Sosa ran in from the outfield to congratulate the new record-holder. With a handful of games left in the season, however, the homer derby of 1998 was not yet over. Sosa blasted four homers in a three-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers, taking his total to 62 and tying McGwire. In the final three games of the season, Sosa pulled ahead of McGwire for the first time when he hit his 66th homer in a game against the Houston Astros. It was to be Sosa's last homer of the year. In the end, McGwire pushed his total for the year to 70. However, Sosa's overall statistics for the year—batting average of .308, 158 RBIs, and 132 runs scored—made him the runaway choice for the NL Most Valuable Player Award.

Although he has yet to equal or top his home run performance of 1998, Sosa has come close. In each of the three seasons immediately following 1998, Sosa managed to hit 50 or more home runs—64 in 1999, 50 in 2000, and 63 in 2001. In 2002, his homers total dropped just below the 50-mark to 49. During the baseball season, Sosa and his wife, Sonia, live in Chicago with their four children, Keysha, Kenia, Sammy Jr., and Michael. The Sosa family spends most of the rest of the year at a home they maintain in the Dominican Republic.

Sosa will long be remembered for what he accomplished in the summer of 1998, but he's not content to rest upon his laurels. He knows that he can't have a season like that every year, "but I believe in myself, I have a lot of ability, and if I've done it once I know I can come back and do it again. I know I'll never forget '98."