Why you ask?
Are you ready for it? Sammy Sosa is a Hall of Famer, first ballot…no questions asked. Admittedly, I hate Sosa…HATE HIM, but his stats are so overwhelming that you could almost disregard the home run numbers and he’d STILL get in. Well, maybe not…the home runs are what really get him enshrined, but you know what I mean.
We all know by now that there are only five baseball players that have hit 600 (or more) home runs…Sosa being the latest addition, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays are the others. But did you realize that Sosa is the only one to have hit more than 60 home runs more than once?
Probably. And he did it three times!
Did you know that Sosa has seven years with 40 or more homers and he did it in six straight seasons? Ruth hit 40 or more in seven straight seasons. By comparison, Reggie Jackson (563 career bombs) NEVER hit 40 or more in back to back years and only has two season with more than 40.
Let’s look at some other notable numbers.
Sosa was an All-Star only seven times. HOWEVER, he has seven top ten MVP finishes. He won the MVP award only once (over Mark McGwire in 1998) and finished in the top ten in six straight seasons.
The guy was a scoring machine…PERIOD. Sosa played for some piss poor teams and STILL managed nine straight season with 100 or more RBI (a career high of 160 and a previous high of 158 are awe-inspiring). By comparison, Ruth’s best effort was eight straight and Jackson only had six 100-plus seasons TOTAL. During the afore mentioned nine year span, Sosa had six straight years with 100 or more runs scored. The seventh year…he scored 99. Incredibly, Sosa hit .289…16 points higher than his career average of .273. 
Tim Kurkijan pointed out on ESPN that Sosa has more home runs at Wrigley Field than Babe Ruth had at Yankee Stadium. More impressive, Sosa has 545 home runs AS a Cub…and only one AGAINST them. “Mr. Cub” Ernie Banks has 512 as a Cub. North Siders might want to reconsider who is who.
So…I’ve gone this whole time without mentioning steroids. And that was on purpose…there is NO REASON to believe that a 39 year-old man CAN’T have an acne issue! In all seriousness, the longer this steroid debate rages (pun intended) on…Sosa’s numbers gain more legitimacy. You see…if MORE players get implicated (and remember Sosa hasn’t tested positive or admitted to ANYTHING), the more players like Sosa, Bonds, Palmeiro and McGwire become “one of the guys”. Except in this case…two get in and two are left out.
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