[Si] TV

Maan, what happened to Sammy Sosa? It feels like just yesterday he and Mark McGwire were smacking baseballs into other zip codes. Now, the only noise you can hear from Sosa is the sound of his chewed-up sunflower seeds hitting the Texas Rangers’ dugout floor. And this reporter is too poor to afford HD TV, so I can’t even hear that.

So, what happened to him? You’ve heard the expression–what goes up, must come down? But damn, did it have to come down so hard?

It was almost 10 years ago, in 1998, when Sosa had Major League Baseball on smash. He would approach the plate – sunflower seeds pocketed inside his cheek—and before you kneow it: BOOM! He would connect, do his trademark homerun hop and watch the baseball fly off his bat and out of the ballpark.

And it didn’t matter that McGwire wound up hitting 70 homers to his 66 that historic season. For that year, the Cubs slugger was as big as Michael Jordan in Chicago. If MJ was Chi-town’s first son, Sosa was the Chi’s first primo. Ya dig? Besides that, it was like the Dominican Day Parade every night Sosa hit a homerun that year.

Throughout the years, though, that love has faded right along with Sosa himself. But how can that happen to a one-time Latino sports god? It’s not like his production slowed down immediately after that ’98 season. He followed the 66 homers in ’98 with 63 in 1999, 50 in 2000, 64 in 2001 and 49 in 2002. But then the next season, it happened.

On a June 3, 2003 game against Tampa Bay, Sosa broke a bat on a pitch. Upon a close look, umpires found the bat to be corked and ejected him from the game. The MLB then jacked Sosa for all his other bats to make sure they weren’t corked. Sosa was suspended for eight games, even though all his other bats were found to be clean. Still, the incident tarnished his reputation.

Making matters worse, Sosa sat out Chicago’s final game of the 2004 season against Atlanta. He was filmed by security cameras leaving the field early in the game. Sosa denied it, but the tape said otherwise. That season was his last in the Chi.

In the following off-season, Sosa was traded to Baltimore. Before the 2005 season began, Sosa had to testify in a MLB steroid probe case. Sosa and McGwire were two of the sluggers questioned about possible steroid use. Sosa denied any use, but that didn’t stop the questions.

All the off-the-field madness took its toll on the diamond, as Sosa fell into a funk that year, hitting only .233 with 14 homeruns. Baltimore ended its deal with Sosa and the slugger took the next season off. His one-year absence in 2006 didn’t help him. It also didn’t help that fellow Dominicans like A-Rod and Albert Pujols were continuing (and still are) to hit homers.

Although Sosa accepted a free-agent offer from Texas and became only the fifth man in MLB history to reach the 600-homer mark this past July, at 38 and weary, he’s not what he used to be. It remains to be seen if the MLB will punch him a ticket for the Hall of Fame, but the corked-bat and alleged steroid involvement ain’t helping.

Is he still a Latino sports legend? Without a doubt. Is he still Slammin’ Sammy Sosa? Nah…more like Staggerin’ Sammy Sosa, a tired fighter about to enter the 12th round or ninth inning in this case. Whichever team he plays for, he’s certain to get less at-bats, which means more sunflower seeds on the bench. But for any former Sosa fans that don’t respect the player, you can always remember his magical 1998 season.