How Sammy Sosa Lost It All

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Who is Sammy Sosa? That should be an easy question to answer.
Sammy Sosa was a baseball player. He was also an MVP, a 30/30 hitter, and the only person in Chicago Cubs history with more than 600 home runs.
But he’s more than that. To some, Sosa helped breathe life back into baseball following the 1994 strike. To others, he’s a pariah; the face of the biggest scandal to rock the game in a century.
Sosa’s legacy is complicated. His prime seasons are among the best ever, while simultaneously being undercut by years of cheating. The result is one of the most controversial, divisive, and often downright bizarre careers in the history of sports.
So I ask again. Who is Sammy Sosa?
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BUSINESS INQUIRIES
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SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter: @BaseballHSTRN
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SOURCES
Baseball Reference
Fangraphs
SABR Bio Project
fansided.com/2022/06/24/frank...
www.insidehook.com/sports/sam...
www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2018/...
www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2007/...
www.chicagotribune.com/2003/0...
www.chicagotribune.com/2003/1...
www.chicagotribune.com/2005/0...
www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?i...
www.espn.com/espnmag/story?id...
www.denverpost.com/2007/12/13...
www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/sp...
www.chicagotribune.com/2024/0...
www.nytimes.com/1998/09/10/sp...
www.chicagotribune.com/2020/0...
www.latimes.com/archives/la-x...
www.espn.com/classic/biograph...
www.sun-sentinel.com/2001/02/...
www.chicagotribune.com/1994/0...
www.chicagotribune.com/1998/0...
www.courant.com/1998/08/30/so...
www.chicagotribune.com/1995/0...
vault.si.com/vault/1998/06/29...
www.chicagotribune.com/2003/0...
muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Sammy_...
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MUSIC
"Prelude No. 15" - Chris Zabriskie
"Funk Game Loop" by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
"Above and Beyond" - Silent Partner
"Not For Nothing" - Otis McDonald
"Corncob - Country" by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
"Sunset Strip" by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
"Heaven and Hell" - Jeremy Blake
"Friction Looks" - Silent Partner
"Star of the Night" - Pip Mondy
"Cantina Blues" - Kevin MacLeod
"Danger Snow" - Dan Henig
"Enemy Ships" by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
"Like That" - Anno Domini Beats
"From Russia With Love" - Huma-Huma
"Sneaking Up" by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00​ - 0:52 Who was Sammy Sosa?
0:53 - 1:49 Sammy's Childhood
1:50 - 5:09 Growing Pains
5:10 - 7:11 What is Rocket Money?
7:12 - 8:27 The White Sox
8:28 - 12:43 Breaking Out
12:44 - 16:17 1998
16:18 - 20:57 The Cracks
20:58 - 24:15 Sammy Goes Before Congress
24:16 - 26:53 The End(?)

[@chrislewis5069]

That is absolutely nuts that he had 3 60 home run seasons and didn’t lead the league once

[@johnmcafee6140]

Ironically he led the NL in HRs in 2000 and 2002 with 50 and 49.

[@timothyconard2825]

Hard to be at the top during the Cheaters' Era.

[@KrakenIsland64]

​​@@timothyconard2825well since he was also cheating yeah, it would mean he'd have to be the best - and he wasn't. Edit - that's like saying it's hard to be the MVP in the league... like yeah no 💩Sherlock 😂.

[@eltonjimenez1616]

- Because there was a greater bigger cheater: MARK MCGUIRE...​@@KrakenIsland64

[@tessp100d4]

Give all the drug cheats an asterisk

[@UndercoverNormie]

"The Chase" between McGuire and Sosa sticks out in the minds of every single damn kid that grew up in the late 90s. Everyone was watching that. It was so exciting back then.

[@ashevillecomics637]

Best season in my lifetime. The guy who bought some of the biggest balls from that year, Todd McFarlane, a few years ago contacted me to do a free signing in my comic book shop. Most surreal experience ever. Todd is an amazing guy. When asked if he has any regrets about paying so much for those balls? None. He says every time there is a homerun record chase in baseball, he is brought up, so the press is worth it. Not to mention he's not exactly poor these days from his comic book company and toy company.

[@Selrahc_69]

@@ashevillecomics637 That's awesome - SPAWN fan for life!

[@ChrisS310]

For real. McGwire and Sosa saved baseball back then. You can tell they were both taking steroids. Everyone knew. They were making so much money for MLB.

[@SnoopyReads]

He got old, retired, then turned white

[@Narfnam19]

That he did 😂

[@jmg999]

He reminds me of an orange that's been left out on the kitchen counter too long.

[@DitkaProductions]

and halved his size

[@robertaBooey69]

He was/is kind of purple at one point

[@henrywallacesghost5883]

We used him up and then threw him out when we were done with him. Anyone with half a brain knew that Sosa, Big Mac, and Bonds were on the juice but we loved the records falling and the long ball. One of the great ironies is that Selig is in the HOF and many of the players that doped might never get inducted.

[@pwnmasteh]

Bartman matters less than Alex Gonzalez booting the double play ball. We can leave Bartman out it.

[@XJapanGonnaGiveItToYa-cd4xj]

It's like how people blamed a certain man in Boston and totally leave out Red Sox having a whole other game to try to win and they couldn't do it

[@bzq122]

not a cubs fan but they need to let that poor man go.

[@nathaniellevesque2782]

Alex Gonzalez looks at Bartman the same way Calvin Schiraldi looks at Bill Buckner.

[@thedude3065]

I agree, Gonzalez totally fucked up that inning that and Dusty Baker letting Mark Prior drown

[@jagartharn6361]

Lifelong Cubs fan here Bartman did nothing wrong. Cubs had 3 chances to put the Marlins away, and failed to do so in games 5-7.

[@EnochTheFirstProphet]

As a Cubs fan who lived 4 blocks from Wrigley, those Sosa years were glorious, baseball is entertainment, and Sammy was a elite level entertainer, baseball stopped being a holier than thou sport, watching Sammy Sosa hit was exciting

[@dash4800]

Its funny you mention his yearly decline, but don't mention that he was injured and really just playing fewer games each year. His HR went from 49 to 40 to 35 to 14, but his games also went from 150 to 137 to 126 to 102. And really the only terrible year from efficiency was 2004. But then he played consistently in 2007 for the first half of the year and his numbers jumped back up to 21 HR 92 RBI and a .252 avg before the Rangers decided to shut him down in favor of playing younger guys. I'm not going to argue that Sammy didn't use steroids, since everyone was. But his drop was way less severe than guys like Pujols, whose numbers plummeted even when he did play every day. And Sosa at 38, clearly past the steroid era, was way better than Pujols at 38

[@brettfriskey4674]

Boombox im going to say Carlos Zambrano

[@raychapman1134]

It was Kerry Wood

[@alexlindsey6446]

@@raychapman1134 Yes, it's been pretty well documented that it was Kerry Wood.

[@cesarguzman1718]

😂

[@jamesoreilly16]

​@@raychapman1134 A pitcher who knows how to use a bat!

[@MrTruckerf]

@@jamesoreilly16 Haha!

[@LDQBBQ]

If Ortiz is in so should Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and Palmeiro. Let 'em all in or keep 'em all out. The MLB HOF is much more of a popularity contest than it is a sanctuary of baseball greatness. Sosa cheated, but so did many other players in the HOF. I'm not here advocating for Sammy Sosa, I'm here to talk about the hypocrisy of MLB. I'm a lifelong and die hard fan of the sport to this day, but they have some things to work out.

[@Denozo88]

How did Ortiz cheat? I'm sorry but if you knew the rules and broke them you shouldn't be in the hof period. The its all a popularity contest doesn't hold muster.

[@odiusphate1938]

@@Denozo88Ortiz failed the same anonymous PED test that Sosa did in 2003. Electing Ortiz to the HoF is the definition of hypocrisy by the HoF voters.

[@thejoshpresle]

Ortiz tested positive.

[@Denozo88]

@@thejoshpresle when was this?

[@Denozo88]

@@thejoshpresle and for what as one player was suspended for not getting a permission slip from mlb for his Adderall he was prescribed.

[@ctffandom]

That Ad was impeccable.

[@thomasb.smithjr.8401]

The one quote most appropriate : 'he could receive love, but he could never return it.' Most of them can't. Grab all the bling-bling you can, while you can. We've seen this all before. Never meet your idols - they'll let you down EVERY time. That's why I've never identified with entertainer types. They don't live in the world we do. They prance, they dance, they titillate in front of us - for a time - but then they grow old, someone new comes along, shoves them off the stage and we start the process again. WEB Dubois told black folks to develop their minds. Booker T. Washington told them to develop their skills. Then you have Jack Johnson, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, et al who are, at best, outliers, maybe even aberrations. Remember Charles Barkley's admission : 'I'm not a role model, I'm just an entertainer.' 😮

[@danieljd6776]

It's crazy how MLB turned on the players that saved them from going under. They could have introduced PED testing without throwing them all under the bus.

[@fredflux2738]

That would have been smart considering there were no rules against what they did.

[@yankees29]

Everyone wanted to see how far they could push the limits of the human body. While I agree that it’s kind of unfair for clean players it was what the fans wanted at the time.

[@deplorablepepe7576]

​@@yankees29There was lots going on behind the scenes. If the users had came forward, admitted it, and said it wasn't illegal, it probably would have been fine. However, the users started lying publicly, paying blackmail, and one even approached his agent about how to hire a hitman. The worst of the worst is still unknown to most.

[@yankees29]

@@deplorablepepe7576 I mean I graduated high school in 95 and I knew what was going on long before that….🤣 athletes from my generation were doing juice from early high school on. I actually went to high school with a famous juice head. So i wasn’t really upset about it. Idk everyone was on something.

[@stephengrinkley9889]

Exactly! In the end all it did was destroy the popularity of it's own sport.

[@robberonbrent]

I hope you were able to write off that Montreal trip

[@puite68]

the only thing i learned from this video was that if you take enough steroids you'll turn into a vampire.

[@joshualesicka2603]

That was good!!!!

[@ShadyOne9]

😂😂 winner winner

[@dcaseng]

It's sad that these players felt the need to cheat. They all had enough talent to be great without steroids, but the ridiculous chase for homeruns watered down the record books.

[@julianvelez1796]

As a Chicago kid growing up in the late 90s and 00s, Sammy Sosa will always be my favorite player regardless of what he did. He changed the game for so many in this city and at times was the only hope and fun Cubs fans had . Even though he looks like Franken Berry now, He’s my personal GOAT

[@HARVEY_1988]

👍🏾👍🏾

[@KennethFrierson-wt6xt]

I'm not sure why anyone cares

[@LGPanthers1]

@@KennethFrierson-wt6xt Aight Kenny chill out

[@KennethFrierson-wt6xt]

@@LGPanthers1 who's Kenny 👀

[@moledaddy]

I stopped watching baseball because of him and McGuire

[@chriskiefer7493]

The HOF should have roid, no roid sections.

[@saemonno-suke9959]

the anonymous cub who destroyed the boom box was Kerry Wood.

[@TonyJackaloni]

I heard it was Harry Carry

[@ledflaplin2001]

@@TonyJackaloni that purple nosed drunk couldn’t even find his pecker when he needed to take a leak. Let alone smash a boombox. 😂

[@claydecoursey2339]

I said either him or Alou

[@joeiborowski9763]

I heard it was Ernie Banks.

[@akbarlebowitz8151]

@@TonyJackaloni Yeah, his ghost!! LOL!

[@user-hv8vv4zw8j]

Kerry wood broke the box

[@billgoldstein4215]

The ghost of Ernie Banks broke it.

[@teachersama]

And yet no one blames Sellig... he knew about this and allowed it in order to make the sport more popular and then he threw all of them under the bus. Edit: For those saying people actually blame Sellig, remember HE IS in the HOF while the players he basically used to boost popularity ARE NOT.

[@chunkymonkey428]

Nah we blame him along with the cheaters. There were plenty of clean players who got robbed of jobs, robbed of accolades, etc. Just because Zellig was complicit does not mean the cheaters are absolved of their wrong doings.

[@matthewbolin9646]

@@chunkymonkey428Do you both mean Selig? As is Bud Selig, the commissioner during this time? Zelig (with one L) is a Woody Allen film from the 1980s.

[@bigjared8946]

@@chunkymonkey428 Everyone was complicit...because it was entertaining. Sports are just entertainment and not actually important.

[@gerryomo9515]

@@matthewbolin9646😂

[@Not_Sal]

Mfer gets to be in the hall of fame

[@mangrove]

2:00 SO nice to hear the great George Kell on that call.

[@daveerhardt1879]

I grew up as a Tiger fan in the 60's and 70's, he and Ernie Harwell were the broadcasters, those were good times.

[@michiganman9599]

Indeed; he is sooooo missed.

[@jedi_417]

Man. This is the guy that really made me fall in love with the game. I’ll never forget that summer in ‘98. But he needs to come clean. As for the unnamed teammate who destroyed the boom box, my guess would be Carlos Zambrano. He was known to have quite a temper lol

[@bak-mariterry9143]

Kerry Wood.

[@OldWorldNewYork]

Those numbers he had as an "unreliable" player in 2004 (.253 BA 35 HRs) would make him an All Star in 2024!

[@joeiborowski9763]

Shows you how standards are lowered so much since drug testing. Also shows how much of an advantage drugs gives you. Also shows you why baseball is boring and losing viewers.

[@cococock2418]

@@joeiborowski9763 standards aren't lowered at all you clown lmao. Batting average is an overrated and unreliable stat that no longer has much importance. OBPS+S for example being one of several much more important stats. You're never going to see someone hit 70 dingers without drugs.

[@tgorefan]

@@joeiborowski9763baseball ain’t boring or losing viewers old man

[@joeiborowski9763]

@@tgorefan I'm sure Tiddly Wink players think their sports is the most fun and popular but google is your friend. Baseball is tied at 9% with soccer, which barely registered in the polls 20 years ago and whose popularity is not likely to drop with the likes of Lionel Messi making the move to the MLS. The classic American sport is barely ahead of motor racing for sports fans’ favorite sport to watch.

[@tgorefan]

@@joeiborowski9763 you do know people can watch and like more than 1 sport right? Viewership is up for the sport and will keep going up

[@jomamackdaddy]

Tim McClelland was also the homeplate ump for the George Brett pinetar game.

[@LDQBBQ]

That's an excellent note.

[@chicagomike4587]

Kerry Wood was a warrior and the unofficial leader of the Cubs players who were old school, respectful and thoughtful of the fans, their teammates and their team. Every guy inside Chicago sports says Kerry Wood smashed Sosa's boom box. I believe it and so does every other fellow Chicagoan I've ever met.

[@cougar2013]

How does the Baseball Historian fail to mention that Wilson Alvarez’s no-hitter was in his first major league start?! 😂 Anyway, absolutely love the channel! Thanks for all your hard work!

[@zaycation8584]

He looking like grandpa munster 😂😂😂

[@user-nv5iq3bp8l]

It seems like Big Papa Ortiz gets a pass.

[@SantosSaysMedia]

​@user-nv5iq3bp8l yes I was going to say Ortiz appears on that same list..

[@patrickmcdaniel2048]

A few notes... Harry Caray died after the '97 season. The Cubs were that bad. I'm glad you mentioned Sosa's 30/30 chain necklace. It would have been great to see a picture of it. That thing was ridiculous. The Cubs broadcast team of Chip Caray and Steve Stone weren't fired. Both were offered contract extensions, and both refused. Both had made comments critical of the Cubs, including Stone saying something to the effect of Kerry Wood should go sell cars. Both had been barred from flying with the team, and some players had even placed calls to the broadcast booth complaining about their comments during games. There was definitely animosity between the players and announcers, and it seems that both parties were better off moving on, but they weren't fired. An interesting note about the corked bat; the barrel of the bat, which was not recovered by the umpires and would've had the majority of the cork, completely disappeared. No one knows what happened to it after it was retrieved by a Cubs bat boy. There was a group of players that stayed late when the boom box was destroyed. They sat around drinking beer and one of this lot, described as being "a veteran position player known for his intensity and unselfishness," was the culprit/hero. That being said, I don't think it was a position player. Looking at the roster, I don't see many position players who were with the Cubs for an extended period that fit that description. It's long been rumored that Kerry Wood did it, and I think it would be harder to prove any other player as responsible.

[@robertweir5313]

Funny that I never really heard of harry caray until my great uncle told me during his time in ww2 fighting Japanese soldiers what they would do to off themselves when surrounded ( my great uncle could talk all day long about his two years in the Navy in his battles rip Uncle Bill) and of course Will Ferrell doing that impersonation . Being a dodgers fan I had only really known of the great late Vin Scully and Rick Monday and knowing Scotter Rizutto doing Yankees games.

[@usscottscott2023]

He sneezed and threw out his back. I knew a man who sneezed and he was paralyzed from the waist down. He was about 40 years old at the time.

[@crowtservo]

In June of 1998 I went to Europe for my senior year trip with a bunch of other kids from my school. No smart phones, nobody had a laptop, it was hard to find American newspapers. Calls home were short and didn’t involve talking about sports. When we landed back in the US on July 2 someone bought a newspaper and it had a huge story on the front of the sports section about Sosa hitting 20 HR in June. All us sports fans were shocked by it. None of us had a clue that was happening while we were gone.

[@govsfootball]

It’s long been a rumor that Kerry Wood was the one who broke the boombox

[@normanwitt4692]

Spelled backwards Yammas Asos 😂Harry Caray used to say that .

[@OH_MY_DOGGG]

Just for his cubs years He averaged 41hrs and 108rbis a year. Not per 162 games. Per year

[@XJapanGonnaGiveItToYa-cd4xj]

Before he got jacked, Sammy Sosa was one of the best fielding outfielders in baseball and would have gone 30/30 three straight years if not for the strike. The narrative around Bonds is "Look at how good he was before steroids" but Sammy Sosa doesn't get the same grace from fans for some reason and people talk about him like he was a one tool player which not true at all. ALSO Sosa had a natural aging curve where he peaked at age 29 and then tailed off into his mid 30 -- like a normal player. Unlike Bond's age 42 having 169 OPS+ So Sammy Sosa was weird. So what? It's not like Sosa ever got charged with perjury.

[@patrickledonne5547]

Lol sorry bro. Lifelong cubby fan here. It's kind of laughable to compare pre juice sosa to pre juice Bonds. They both hit for some power and stole some bases as youngsters. However Bonds consistently had a BA .040 points higher and an OBP .100 points higher. I don't believe sosa won a gold glove, and I don't recall him ever being thought of as one of the best. He had good speed and a rocket arm. I recall him misplaying a lot of balls later in his career. Steroids might make you too slow to get to a fly ball, but it doesn't cause you to turn the wrong way or misjudge where the wall is. That's poor instincts. He might have been better defensively than bonds, but not a whole lot and not enough to overcome the offensive prowess of Barry bonds.

[@robertgriffin5703]

I give benefit of the doubt to him but not to the same extent. Barry was the best player w/o steroids. Sosa was a top 30 player?

[@XJapanGonnaGiveItToYa-cd4xj]

@@robertgriffin5703 It's impossible to prove Barry never did steroids early on. All we know is when he decided to get huge. You don't have to use steroids to get huge. You can use them just to stay healthy. You can use them to spend less time in the gym. Still cheating and we'll never know. Sammy on the other hand had a normal career trajectory. He peaked at the normal years and declined in the normal years.

[@BostonBori92]

​​@@robertgriffin5703 You should not lmaoo everytime hes asked about it he comes off as a guilty person hiding...I have no doubt that he took them but he'll probably take it to his grave 😂

[@wyssmaster]

If you look at the seasons before 1998, Sosa's career line is .257/.308/.469, with a wRC+ of 102, which is average. His walk rate was only 6.3%, his strikeout rate was 23.5%, he was a mediocre baserunner (5.3 BsR over 9 seasons), and yeah, by Total Zone he was a very good defender in right field. His career WAR to that point was 22.9. Realistically, without his home run explosion he likely would have been a Hall of Very Good type player (and even with his monster seasons he's still at best a borderline HoF guy who I would keep out, mostly because his game was essentially about power and nothing else). Yes, he had enough speed to steal 30+ bases a season, but he was only successful 70% of the time in that span (generally 75% is right on the border of providing value stealing bases. Realistically he should have either been less aggressive or just stopped stealing entirely, as he was providing negative value). You're correct in saying that Sosa was not a one-tool player, but he was essentially a two-tool player, with one of those tools being due for massive regression as he aged. Also, I don't understand why you're talking about Sosa's career being "like a normal player" as if there wasn't something very odd about the fact that he went from a 30 homer a year guy (he hit 40 once) to averaging nearly 60 homers a year from 1998 to 2002. His wRC+ dropped 40 points over two years in his mid-30s, and then within three years he was out of baseball. Sure, Bonds was an aberration, but then he was exactly that for his entire career. I'm not going to argue that Bonds never juiced, but if you compare him to some other Hof caliber players, you get things like: Albert Pujols with a 149 wRC+ in his final season, aged 42 (honestly probably a couple years older than that) after being a below-average hitter the previous five seasons Willie Mays with a 157 wRC+ at 40, and a 132 wRC+ at 41, before injuries ended his career with a sub-par third of a season with the Mets (which should never have happened, dude should have been with the Giants through his entire career) Luke Appling with a 130 wRC+ at 42, 15 points about his career number Stan Musial with a 140 wRC+ at 41, which was roughly his average number from his aged 34 season to his aged 39 season Edgar Martinez with a 142 wRC+ at 40, and a 141 the year prior Darrell Evans with a 132 wRC+ at 40 Dave Winfield with a 140 wRC+ at 40 Hank Aaron with a 177(!) wRC+ at 39 Rickey Henderson with a 135 wRC+ at 40 My point is not that it should be expected that players can consistently be excellent hitters into their late 30s and early 40s, but that HoF players tend to be HoF players because they were able to perform at a high level well into their careers. Bonds is not an outlier when you look at players who were MVP-level early in their careers, didn't deal with injuries through most of their careers and (generally speaking) didn't play overly demanding positions like catcher (the only non-corner position players in that list were Appling and Mays, with everyone else generally playing first, third, left or right). The biggest reason why Bonds was so much better than a player like Griffey was not that he was exceptionally better when they were both in their primes, but because Bonds played a minimum of 130 games a season for all but 5 seasons of his career (one of those being his rookie season, another being the strike season, so really he only missed three seasons due to injury, and to be fair only 2005 saw him basically out for a whole year), while with Griffey from his aged 31 season on he only hit 130 twice, with 8 seasons just in that span seeing him lose at least 20% of the season due to injury (he had four seasons in that span in which he missed at least half the season). basically sosa's career tracks very well with players who relied on one or two tools for their value (in his case, power and defense, with his defense falling dramatically and his power falling off into his mid-30s), while bonds' tracks very well with true 5-tool players (and tbh i would rate bonds higher than basically every other 5 tool player, as he obviously hit more home runs than anyone else in history, he's in the top 25 all time in stolen bases [is also the only player in the 400-400 club, 500-500 club, 600-500 club, 700-500 club etc etc, and was successful about 78% of the time, so he was good and good for a long time], basically hit .300 for his career but is also in the top 6 all time for OBP [top 4 in the modern era] and is just behind Ted Williams for the highest walk rate of all time, was excellent in left during his early career [173 Total Zone runs and 20 UZR runs for four of his last six seasons, before injuries basically made him a statue), and a good arm that wasn't a rocket like Sosa, but was generally quick and accurate (172 career assists, which puts him 48th all time among OFs, although if we look at the modern era he's 10th all time).

[@theman1412]

25:00, one of those guys made the Hall 😁

[@tjmoosemanzata4384]

Sosa (1997): “Beisbol has been bery, bery gud to me.” Sosa (Today): “This is um,….like I say um,…this is umm,….not a question I espected from yous.” Sosa’s Boombox: …………………. (R.I.P. 🪦 Boombox 😢)

[@GeeEm1313]

My family and I sat behind him in the outfield at the old Comiskey Park. He still had his Jheri curls.

[@jerseymade2754]

Great Segway to push the sponsor💯

[@danielblecker3698]

such an interesting video. great job

[@BaseballHistorian]

thank you my friend:)

[@RobJaskula]

April 16, 2004: 20 years ago today we have a Hummer limo and a box at Wrigley for my Bud's 18th birthday. Sosa andAlou go back to back in the 10th to win it. Ken Griffey also hit the hardest ball ive ever seen. Whole game is on KZbin, what a day!

[@Keranu]

I've only known Kerry Wood to smash Sosa's boombox. I've never heard this incident refer to someone anonymous.

[@Mistrudels]

Smashing that boom box seems like something Zambrano would do. The dude would break bats over his knee when he struck out and he did some damage to the dugout if he pitched a bad game.

[@saemonno-suke9959]

it was Wood.

[@cokesquirrel]

I had read it was mark grace. Honestly grace seems the most likely to me Since he was a real team leader as opposed to what so-so pretended to be

[@philarends7555]

I think Woody has a collection of things he had to pay for during his career due to temper. Water fountains coolers etc.

[@isletoflangerhans8281]

I will always remember him for the Denny's commercial with Tony Gwynn where he says "Don't feel so bad, Tony. I got traded for Wade Boggs and a side of rice pilaf."

[@terencehill2320]

I destroyed the boombox - Signed, 2004 Cubs Player

[@JazzyJeff910]

As a kid Baseballer of the 90s and 00s. Nothing beat this era in baseball.

[@drunkenmmamaster419]

Still remember when I was at an Orioles Indians game way back in the day and everyone booed every time Sosa came up to bad and yelled “don’t use your practice bat” 😂😂😂

[@bobluchetta-stendel3863]

This is my new favorite video ❤

[@hoosierflatty6435]

"an anonymous Cub" lol we all know it was Woody

[@RandallFPS]

Hit 545 Homers as a Cub.

[@mletrout7942]

He isn’t Ernie Banks, that’s for damn sure.

[@reachvideo]

Especially on the matter of ethics and integrity.

[@efg1311]

I’ll tell you what, Rocket Money got their money’s with your plug. You should be charging more since you’re obviously giving more

[@robertaBooey69]

Three 60 homerun years

[@SnoopyReads]

And didn't even lead his own league once, craziest stat

[@abdernajem6356]

Mister life time cubs fan the bom box, was broken by Kerry wood

[@potentially__9445]

I’m waiting for a video blaming Selig and the league offices, you know, the people who allowed the steroid use, turned a blind eye. Well, that’s until Barry Bonds started using them, then they all of a sudden took issue with it.

[@chainexplorer]

I heard it was Kerry Wood who smashed the Boom Box and no he should never be allowed back in Wrigley Field

[@aj132383s]

Kerry Wood destroyed the boombox

[@TheGbelcher]

MLB: Sosa can’t hit curveballs CWS: Sign him. Sign him now.

[@AEWMaineTreasureAdventures]

You’ll need to ask Kerry Wood what happened to the boombox…. ❤on a side note a boombox doesn’t hold up against a bat. Who would’ve known. 😂

[@jasonkeenan4154]

I'd just like to say that I also threw out my back while sneezing as well. I was down for like a week!

[@chrislewis5069]

Need more lead up and highlights of Sammy’s progression from 94 up to 98

[@Shmuel420]

I was actually at the game where Sammy hit number 600.

[@TstanDa-Man]

Everyone was on the juice, from the pitchers, batters, so it was even if you ask me

[@mizer9510]

No they weren't

[@jstro3136]

I got into a heated argument with a friend because he believe that baseball execs didn’t know that players were juicing. I believed that there was no way in hell BB execs, managers, players, even concession workers didn’t know players were juicing. 😂

[@deplorablepepe7576]

I grew up watching baseball in the 80's pre steroids and in middle school, we noticed the steroids. When Jose Canesco was in Oakland, we called him Jose Cansteroid. It was so obvious. As a joke, I wrote a letter to the Commissioner, got the address out of Baseball Digest, and mocked them for not being able to figure out something that every kid in America knows. Three years later, I actually received a reply out of the blue thanking me for taking time out to write and "your concerns are duly noted." Everyone knew. And yes, Selig and the execs don't deserve Cooperstown for this, and neither do the players. Sosa and McGwire wouldn't have had to save baseball if the owners didn't cancel a season and a World Series, and how many kids did players affect in a negative way by encouraging such a shortcut? They all cheated the game, the public, and themselves.

[@bakoboyo138]

One of the best quotes from that whole era? McGuire: "It dont really matter if you can't hit."

[@BrokeMoeHowardUHF]

Great video on Sosa!

[@CCRider5312]

Don’t Admit 💩 Sammy ! Tell them to kiss your Sammy Sosa Sass 😂👍🏼

[@markkostka6897]

Will be waiting forever for the Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jose Conseco, Arod, Rafael Palmeiro, Clemens, Pettitte, Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Mike Stanton, Jeez did you pick Sosa from a hat?

[@smoothkid765]

It was definitely mark Grudzelanik that destroyed the boombox. I did my best on the spelling.😂

[@honestfan420]

Great video

[@stepsinpairs]

@24:30 I'm not sure there's a stat that reveals less about steroid use than RBI totals...

[@trabajoduro4572]

So many ads omg 😱

[@boogitybear2283]

1998 was also another special year when Rookie Kerry Wood pitched a 20 strikeout game.

[@bigbearkat2010]

I like to envision a Murder on the Orient Express scenario in where the entire team took turns bashing the boombox in an act of solidarity.

[@OGskwid]

So odd seeing Astros in that NL Central standings

[@bzq122]

5:07 VERY relevant right about now!

[@mizer9510]

I will forever love Sammy because of the joy he brought to the city of Chicago and baseball. He was very likeable, unlike Bonds. He was a great player before the juice too. He could've easily had 40+ Hr seasons every year but wanted more.

[@AlohaBlockchain]

I like to think every Cub took his turn on the boom box, Full Metal Jacket style.

[@jamesdelaney3797]

Early in his career, he never saw a pitch he didnt like. Dude used to strikeout a ton

[@patrickledonne5547]

I tend to believe ballplayers when they claim ignorance or accident about corked bats. Bats shatter a lot. Corked bats will be more prone to failure. Its inevitable that you will break your bat and get discovered, and probable you will be caught within a few broken bats. Youre unlikely to get away with it for an extended length of time.

[@mizer9510]

There is no way he knew he was using a corked bat.

[@harveyotoole2029]

@@mizer9510 LOL

[@BubbasndRayEarl]

No mentioned of the changes that MLB made to the baseball in the late 90's .

[@franguidry2017]

Love the ads!

[@OilCompany95]

I had mvp baseball 2004 until my bother stepped on the disk on accident in like 2006

[@rrmond]

"This is um, like I say um"

[@redhoode.n.y.6314]

Sosa running around looking like orlando brown 💀💀

[@mizer9510]

who?

[@BillyRamirez]

I skipped through the ad. See what I did there?

[@lfish21.]

Sammy is and always will be my favorite player of all time. He’s the reason I’m a Cubs fan. He and Mark are why I am a fan of this game and nobody will ever take 1998 away from us.

[@flickboogers9325]

When salsa played for the Cubs it was the most fun I ever had watching baseball

[@Leafgreen1976]

it's funny the people that caused the steroid era haven't been fined,charged or identified, but the players have all been thrown under the bus.

[@LDQBBQ]

Much like the Astros in 2017, and deservedly so.

[@manzac112]

​@@LDQBBQ Oh man, it's not like there were plenty of other teams that did it better than Houston, although what the Astros did was not good. The funny fact was what the Astros did actually was ineffective and didn't really change anything.

[@LDQBBQ]

@manzac112 if it was ineffective they wouldn't have done it.

[@dezzreg]

Typical really. Likely Selig, the owners and the MLBPA were in on it. When you're talking people with that much power, influence and money its not surprising. Scapegoating is the name of the game.

[@tessp100d4]

Read … The Game of Shadows. Then…. You will understand.

[@AndrewAnstrom]

Been a lifelong Cubs fan and likely always will be... no player broke my heart more than Sammy Sosa... he was my hero when I was a teenager...I remember becoming insanely disillusioned when he corked his bat and now I can't stand to even look at what he's become.

[@mizer9510]

Get over yourself

[@markohollywood4218]

Boombox was supposedly Kerry Woods 😅😅

[@wewin03]

The ghost of Harry Caray destroyed the boombox.

[@kpmurphy2738]

Sosa improved due to ROIDS. Roids = HR's = Walks = Batting Avg. Sosa hit 300, 3 times in his MLB career, all during his ROID use. This is also true for many of the other ROID users. Sosa's lifetime BA is 252. McGuire is a lifetime 263 hitter.

[@misawajason]

Everyone was juicing back then. The summer that Mac and Sosa dueled it out was simply electric. Saved baseball after the lockout. Then they became scapegoats. It's been over 20 years, time to let them bask in the lights for a little while before it's too late and we lose them for good. This goes for Pete too...enough is enough...unban the man for effs sake

[@edwardtatum6136]

Mark Grace destroyed the boombox!

[@jaybradbury597]

here's a fact the steriod era, McGwire and Sosa the homerun chase saved baseball. For a while in that era people were tuning in and getting though the gates in huge numbers. Now if Sammy follows suit in saying "Yes I did steriods" I honestly think baseball welcomes him back with open arms.

[@roecc8134]

I think it was Steve Bartman who destroyed the Boom Box

[@claydecoursey2339]

Threw my back out coughing. Missed a month of work. Had to get numbing injections in my spine. The doctors said the sneezing/coughing thing happens all the time and isn't rare, but extremely common.

[@billgoldstein4215]

#claydecoursey // Are you some kind of regular stupid....or BIG STUPID? BS

[@DonJaKobe]

Love your channel dude! I got into baseball more a couple years ago and kinda have just be watching it. It's been cool learning the modern day players and culture. But your channel has been really helpful by teaching the lore of the game. So next time somebody makes a reference to an older player I'm not like "huh?! who?!" My fav watch so far was the Doc Gooden's, the story of his no hitter brought a lil tear to my eye. 🥲

[@DynamiteRaven]

Honestly, this strikes me as similar to the Lance Armstrong situation. It's unlikely he straight up "did steroids" and I believe him when he said he was never involved with any injections. However, he was doing something to gain an unfair advantage. And, like with Armstrong, this cheating was widespread in the sport, so if you wanted to be the best that meant being the best player was no longer enough, you had to be the best cheater. One of Armstrong's Tour titles is empty because they couldn't find anyone to give it to, all the other top finishers had been caught cheating as well. How much you want to blame the sport organizers for letting things slide for the viewership, the culture of the sport for encouraging cheating to keep up, or the individual for choosing winning over ethical play, is really up to you. Nobody in either situation is innocent.

[@notsosilentmajority1]

The truth is that steroids allowed these guys to do things they never did before and never did after drug testing came into MLB. The biggest cheater was really Barry Bonds, he not only never admitted to anything but he allowed a close friend(?) to spend time in prison for him. So, these guys should not have any of their records recognized. On the other hand, MLB and everyone with a pulse knew what was going on with the McGwire/Sosa "Chase". That "Chase" saved baseball, along with all the homers that were being hit by other players. Remember the Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux Nike commercial around 1999? "Chicks Dig the Long Ball" showed 2 thin, non muscular pitchers working out and hitting home runs and having "chicks" like Heather Locklear "dig" them. MLB used the homers to bring back fans and make more money than ever, up to that point in time. Years later MLB and others acted like they were shocked and disappointed about steroid/PEDS, they're a bunch of hypocrite liars. Sosa was an immature, selfish guy and when you hear someone his age telling you that he's mature, that says it all. Mature men in their 50's don't have to tell other men that they are mature. Continuing to not answer questions to which there is an obvious answer definitely doesn't help the situation either.

[@jimmyplenderleith9471]

I love when players finally admit something and cry like its so hard......its so hard cause you got caught and have to finally admit....dont sit there and act like its "SO HARD" for you admit things...its so hard for you to let others know you cheated.......

[@Denozo88]

It is hard to all but admit that everything you've done is a lie.