For Your Consideration: Sammy Sosa

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America is casting its ballots this month for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Class of 2018.

La Vida Baseball will weigh in with the pros, the cons and the betcha-didn’t-knows of the Latino candidates. There are 33 players eligible, including Omar Vizquel, Édgar Martínez, Vladimir Guerrero, Sammy Sosa, Johan Santana, Manny Ramírez, Liván Hernández, Carlos Lee, Carlos Zambrano and Andruw Jones, who we include because he hails from Curacao.

Previously, we looked at Vizquel, Martínez and Guerrero. In this edition, Sosa.

.273/.344/.534 — 58.4 WAR — 51.0 JAWS

By Efraín Ruiz Pantin

Slammin’ Sammy’s personal story is worthy of the Hall of Fame. Born in San Pedro de Macorís, the birthplace of many sluggers from the Dominican Republic, he grew up poor and driven, a shoeshine boy who became the Latino Bambino. Discovered by scouting legend Omar Minaya, who later became the first Latino general manager in Major League Baseball, Sosa signed with the Texas Rangers in 1985. He debuted in 1989, but was traded to the Chicago White Sox that July with pitcher Wilson Álvarez, who later became the first Venezuelan to throw a no-hitter.

There was certainly nothing trivial about Sosa’s career after he was sent to the Cubs in 1992. Sosa earned his nickname by going deep, and often. He traded dinger after dinger with Mark McGwire in 1998 during the historic chase for Roger Maris’ season record, as Dominican livery drivers in New York City kept track of his running total in their rear windows with white shoe polish.

An MVP and seven-time All-Star, Sosa at his peak was as big as anyone in the game, the only player in history to hit 60 home runs in three different seasons and the first Latino to 500 and 600 round-trippers. Hit or miss, he was entertaining, surpassing 100 RBI nine times and leading the league in strikeouts three times.

The case for Sosa

Sosa is one of nine players to hit 600 home runs, exclusive company that includes Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Álex Rodríguez, Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr., Albert Pujols and Jim Thome. From 1995 to 2002 — his best seasons with the Cubs — Sosa averaged 50 home runs and 130 RBI.

No ballpark or stage was too big for him. Sosa still holds the record for most home runs in a five-year span (292 from 1998 to 2002) and in a 10-year span (479 from 1995 to 2004), streaks that beat the Babe.

The case against Sosa

Sosa’s legacy is stained by the Steroid Era. In 2009, a New York Times report revealed that he was among 100 players who had tested positive for PEDs during the 2003 anonymous testing program that set the stage for today’s stringent anti-doping rules.

A second strike against Sosa was the fact that most of his testimony before Congress in 2005 was read by his lawyer, and was very carefully worded. In the statement, Sosa said that he never took any “illegal performance-enhancing drugs… never injected myself or had anyone inject me with anything. I have not broken the laws of the United States or the laws of the Dominican Republic.” To some, this left open the fact that he may have ingested steroids in pill form prescribed to him.

And his third strike was being caught with a corked bat at Wrigley Field during the 2003 season. There are HOF voters from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America who will not judge him guilty of taking PEDs, but who will not forgive him for cheating with his bat.

What the metrics say

Sadly, analytics don’t help Sosa’s case. His 58.4 WAR ranks him way below the 73.2 average for the 24 right fielders enshrined in Cooperstown. His 51.0 JAWS — which averages career WAR with a player’s 7-year peak WAR — also lags when compared to these same right fielders. Sosa wore No. 21 when he played for the Cubs, but otherwise he doesn’t compare at many levels to Roberto Clemente.

Sosa’s biggest sin is that he’s viewed as a home run hitter and nothing else. He didn’t get on base often enough — as evidenced by his career .344 OBP — was an indifferent runner, and ignored his glove despite having one of the best arms around. When Sosa became enamored of the long ball, he lost some the drive that propelled him out of poverty back home.

And in today’s metric-driven game, 600 home runs by themselves make you an oddity, as opposed to a Hall of Famer.

Greatest moment

We will never forget the Summer of ’98. Sosa and McGwire brought fans back to a game that hadn’t fully recovered from the 1994 labor stoppage. While it was McGwire who first surpassed Maris’ season record of 61 home runs, on Sept. 25 Sosa led McGwire 66 to 65. Big Mac took first place in the record books by blasting five dingers in the last weekend against the woeful Montreal Expos pitching staff to finish with 70, yet Sosa’s smile and grace lent a human side to the competition. When Sosa passed Maris, it happened to be against McGwire’s Cardinals. Who can forget Big Mac lifting Sammy in a bear hug right there and then?

Fact you probably don’t know

Despite being the only player to hit 60 home runs three times, Sosa did not lead the National League in dingers in any of those seasons. In 1998, McGwire beat him 70-66. The next season, McGwire again finished first, 65-63. And in 2001, Barry Bonds stole the show with his record-breaking year, 73-64. Talk about bad timing. If Sosa had hit all those home runs in another era, he most likely would not be on the outside looking in.

Featured Image: Joe Robbins / Getty Images Sport

Inset Image: The Sporting News