Essay On Sammy Sosa

Sammy Sosa was born on November 12, 1968 in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. His parents, Lucrecia and Bautista were not well off and Sammy had a hard childhood, with his father passing away when he was just seven. His family lived in an abandoned hospital while Sammy sold oranges on the street, and shined shoes to make ends meet for his mother and six siblings. He started playing baseball at fourteen years old, but had to use a branch instead of a bat, old milk carton for a baseball glove, and a sock rolled up as a ball. His natural talents for the game were noticed when he was young. When he was just fifteen, the Philadelphia Philles attempted to sign him but were disallowed, as Sammy was younger than Major League Baseball's minimum

age of sixteen. He instead went to play in some local leagues and a year later in 1985, while working out at the Toronto Blue Jays camp.

A Texas Rangers scout, Omar Minaya, signed him to his first contract with the Rangers. Sosa was described as "malnourished" in his initial scouting report, but that changed as he began working his way through the Rangers minor league system. Sammy made his major league debut on June 16, 1989 against the New York Yankees and hit is first major league homerun five days later against Roger Clemens and the Boston Red Sox. His time in Texas was short, on July 29, 1989; Sosa was traded by the Rangers along with Scott Fletcher and Wilson Alvarez to the Chicago White Sox for Harold Baines and Fred Manrique. all. Sammy Sosa spent parts of the next three seasons with the Chicago White Sox and their minor league teams. In March of 1992, he was traded once again, this time with Ken Patterson to the Chicago Cubs for George Bell. By the 1993 season, it was clear that the Cubs had got a steal from the White Sox. In his first full season with the Cubs, Sammy became the first 30-30 player in the team's history. Sammy was just getting warmed up. He played in his first All-Star Game on July 11, 1995 in the home stadium of his former team, the Rangers in Arlington,

Texas. He completed his second 30-30 campaign with the Cubs and became the first player in the 20th century to lead the Cubs in homers and steals for three straight years. Things began to go downhill for Sammy Sosa in the 2003 season. For the first time in his career, injuries saw him miss playing time and a problem surrounding the use of corked bat further exasperated his decline.

Sosa claimed that the corked bat was one that he only used for batting practice and was suspended for seven games. Major League Baseball did an investigation that included x-raying all of his bats and did not find any evidence to suggest cheating. Sammy still hit 40 home runs and the Cubs came five outs from playing in the World Series. The following year saw Sammy injure his back after sneezing. The fluke incident saw him go on the disabled list for just the second time in his career and left him with chronic back spasms. As his play suffered, so did his relationship with manager Dusty Baker and apparently with his teammates. He showed up late for the last game of the 2004 season, and when told that he would not be starting that evening, walked out of Wrigley field. That would happen to be the last time Sammy would do that as a Cub. On January 28, 2005, the Cubs traded Sammy Sosa to the Baltimore Orioles for Jerry Hairston, Jr. and two minor league prospects. He had a very disappointing year in Baltimore playing just 102 games and hitting 14 home runs and driving in 45 runs. Although that year also saw investigations into steroid use in

sports. The BALCO investigation and Jose Canseco's book had already put the drug spotlight on baseball. During hearings in front of the United States Congress, Mark McGwire refused to answer questions about past steroid use but Sammy Sosa was quite clear when he said that he never used illegal steroids. Sosa did acknowledge to using sports supplement creatine, which is a completely legal nutritional supplement. The general public was getting skeptical and Sosa along with other recent power hitters like Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds have been cast in a negative light. The potentially future hall of famer sat out the 2006 season and returned in 2007 with the team that had originally drafted him - The Texas Rangers. Sammy Sosa played his final MLB season with the Rangers, hitting 21 home runs and driving in a very respectable 92 runs. His most recent appearance in the news was in a strange story where it was shown that Sammy had gotten "treatment" to lighten the colour of his skin. Sammy Sosa is an extraordinary athlete. When people think of the best homerun hitters of all-time, Sammy Sosa is in that category. One of the best sluggers that has ever played the game. He came from a different country and is a different race, but he never let that adversity surrounding him affect his game. He will always be remembered and honored as one of the best offensive Major League Baseball player of his era and of all time.