Sammy Sosa

Samuel Peralta Sosa famed as Sammy Sosa is a famous Dominican American former professional baseball right fielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 19 seasons, primarily with the Chicago Cubs. After playing for the Texas Rangers and Chicago White Sox, Sosa joined the Cubs in 1992 and became regarded as one of the game’s best hitters. He hit his 400th home run in his 1,354th game and his 5,273rd at-bat, reaching this milestone quicker than any player in National League history. Sosa and Mark McGwire achieved national fame for their home run-hitting prowess in pursuit of Roger Maris’ home run record in 1998. He hit his 600th career home run to become the fifth player in MLB history to reach the milestone while he was playing for Rangers. On 3rd June 2009, he announced his intention to retire from baseball. He made the announcement in the Dominican Republic and said that he was calmly looking forward to his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame since his statistics were up to par. 

Former MLB star; Sammy Sosa explains why his skin color is lighter since retirement

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Sammy Sosa no longer looks like he did during the 1990s when he battled Mark McGwire for home run supremacy. His change in appearance has been the subject of questions for a while, and the scrutiny has increased this weekend in response to ESPN releasing a documentary about his prolific 1998 summer on the baseball diamond. He’s said in the past that his skin carries a different appearance now because of a cream he uses that includes bleach, a practice that has garnered criticism and jokes on social media. “It’s a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed and whitens my skin some,” Sosa said in a 2009 interview with Univision after a photo was taken at the Grammy Latino Awards, the first look at Sosa’s lighter complexion. In a 2018 interview with NBC Sports Chicago, he said he is healthy and denounced the criticism he’s received amid rumors of skin bleaching. He has maintained his lightened skin tone was an unintended side effect of using the cream and unrelated to race: “I’m not a racist, I live my life happily.” 

Famous For

  • Being a former professional baseball right fielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 19 seasons.
  • Being one of nine players in MLB history to hit 600 career home runs.

What is the Birthplace of Sammy Sosa?

On 12th November 1968, Sammy Sosa was born with the birthname/real name of Samuel Peralta Sosa. His birthplace/hometown is in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, and is part of Haitian descent. Aa of 2019, he celebrated his 51st birthday. He is Dominican by nationality and his ethnicity is Mixed. his race is Mixed. His star sign is Scorpio and his religion is Christian. He was born to his parents and he is known to family and friends as “Mikey”. His maternal grandmother, who had suggested his birth name of Samuel, also came up with his nickname: “[She] heard the name on a soap opera she liked and decided from that moment on he would be Mikey.” 

How was the Baseball Career of Sammy Sosa?

Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox (1989-1991)

  • Sammy Sosa made his major league debut on 16th June 1989 with the Texas Rangers, wearing #17 and leading off as the starting left fielder where he hit his first career home run off Roger Clemens.
  • The Rangers traded him with Wilson Alvarez and Scott Fletcher to the Chicago White Sox for Harold Baines and Fred Manrique on 29th July 1989. 
  • He batted .233 with 15 home runs, 70 runs batted in, 10 triples, and 32 stolen bases in the year 2990. 
  • He also struck out 150 times, fourth-most in the American League. Sosa started the 1991 season by hitting 2 home runs and driving in 5 runs.

Chicago Cubs (1992-2004)

  • The White Sox later traded him and Ken Patterson to the Chicago Cubs for outfielder George Bell before the 1992 season.
  • He batted .260 with 8 home runs and 25 RBIs in his first season with the Cubs. 
  • He also showed his speed by stealing 38 bases. 
  • Moreover, he became the Cubs’ first 30-30 player in their history.
  • He continued to hit for power and speed in 1994 but he also improved his batting average. 
  • He ended up batting .300 with 25 home runs, 70 RBIs, and 22 stolen bases.
  • He was named to his first All-Star team in the year 1995.
  • He batted .268 with 36 home runs and 119 RBIs in 144 games. 
  • He continued his success with the Cubs in 1996 as he batted .273 with 40 home runs and 100 RBIs.
  • He emerged during the 1998 season as one of baseball’s greatest. He had become the first Major League batter ever to hit 66 home runs in a season. 
  • He produced then-career highs in batting average and slugging percentage, at .308 and .647 respectively, and also led the league in RBIs and runs scored.
  • In 1998, Sosa’s 416 total bases were the most in a single season since Stan Musial’s 429 in 1948.
  • He performed in the month of June, during which Sosa belted 20 home runs, knocked in 47 runs, and posted a .842 slugging percentage, was one of the greatest offensive outbursts in major league history.
  • H hit 63 home runs, again trailing Mark McGwire, who hit 65 in 1999 season. 
  • In the 2000 season, he led the league by hitting 50 home runs where he received the Babe Ruth Home Run Award for leading MLB in homers.
  • In the year 2001, he hit 64 home runs, becoming the first player to hit 60 home runs in three seasons in his career.
  • In the same season he set personal records in runs scored (146), RBI (160), walks (116), on-base percentage (.437), slugging percentage (.737), and batting average (.328).
  • He led the majors in runs and RBI, was 2nd in home runs, 2nd in slugging percentage, 1st in total bases, 3rd in walks, 4th in on-base percentage, 12th in batting average, and 15th in hits. 
  • He led the league in home runs with 49 in 2002. 
  • He owns numerous team records for the Cubs, and he holds the major-league record for the most home runs hit in a month (20, in June 1998). 
  • He won the National League Central Division title in 2003. 
  • On 3rd June 2003, he was ejected from a Chicago Cubs-Tampa Bay Devil Rays game in the first inning when umpires discovered he had been using a corked bat.
  • He finished the season with 40 home runs, and he hit two more in the 2003 NLCS against the Florida Marlins, which the Cubs led 3 games to 1 before ultimately falling in seven games.
  • He suffered an odd injury while sitting next to his locker chatting with reporters before a game in San Diego’s Petco Park in May 2004. 
  • He was diagnosed with back spasms and placed on the disabled list and fell into one of the worst slumps of his career, only snapping out of it during the last week of the season. 
  • He finished with 35 homers, far below the numbers of his best years. In his final 10 years with the Cubs, he clubbed 479 home runs; the most in history over a 10-year span. 
  • The final straw for the Cubs was an incident in late 2004. 
  • Hr requested to sit out the last game of the season, which was at home against the Atlanta Braves, and he left Wrigley Field early in the game which was his last time in a Cubs uniform.

Baltimore Orioles and the year off (2005-2006)

  • The Cubs traded Sosa to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for infielder-outfielder Jerry Hairston, Jr., infielder Mike Fontenot, and RHP Dave Crouthers on 28th January 2005. 
  • Under the deal, Sosa earned $17.875 million for the 2005 season, with the Cubs paying $7 million of his salary.
  • By playing for the 2005 Orioles alongside fellow 500-home-run batter Rafael Palmeiro, he and Palmeiro became the first 500 home run club members in history to play together on the same team after reaching the 500 home run plateau.
  • He finished the 2005 season batting .221 with 14 home runs, his worst performance since 1992, and continuing his post-2001 trend of declines in batting average, homers, total bases, and RBI. 
  • On 7th December 2005, the Orioles decided not to offer him an arbitration contract, effectively ending his Baltimore Orioles tenure and making him a free agent.
  • In the year 2005, The Sporting News published an update of their 1999 book “Baseball’s 100 Greatest Players”. 

Texas Rangers and end of career (2007-2009)

  • The Texas Rangers, his original team, signed him to a minor league deal worth $500,000 on 30th January 2007. 
  • He was successful during spring training and was added to the team’s 25-man roster and started the 2007 season as the Rangers’ designated hitter and occasional right fielder.
  • The Chicago Cubs awarded his number 21 to new pitcher Jason Marquis, who coincidentally served up Sosa’s 600th career home run. 
  • On 26th April 2007, he made history by hitting a home run in his 45th major league ballpark.
  • He has also homered in The Ballpark at Disney’s Wide World of Sports, near Orlando, Florida, a usually minor-league and Spring training park that hosted a regular-season series between the Rangers and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in May 2007, although he did not hit a homer at the two regular-season games the Cubs played at the Tokyo Dome in 2000 vs. the Mets.
  • He hit a home run off of Jason Marquis during an inter-league game against the Chicago Cubs on 20th June 2007. 
  • He is the Cubs’ all-time home run leader, having hit 545 with that team.
  • On 28th May 2008, he announced that he instructed his agent not to offer his services to any MLB team for the 2008 season, and planned on filing for retirement, but never did.
  • On 25th December 2008, he announced he intended to unretire and play in the World Baseball Classic and once again test the free-agent market in hopes of signing with a Major League ballclub in 2009.
  • After that, he remained a free agent and did not actively look for a team.
  • He announced his intention to retire from baseball on 3rd June 2009. 
  • He made the announcement in the Dominican Republic and said that he was calmly looking forward to his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame since his statistics were up to par.

Hall of Fame and Drug test controversy 

  • Regarding his drug test controversy, The New York Times reported on 16th June 2009 that he was on a list of players who had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in the year 2003, in baseball’s steroids scandal.
  • His attorney testified on his behalf, stating, “To be clear, I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs. I have 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. I have been tested as recently as 2004, and I am clean.”
  • In an interview with ESPN Deportes, Sosa said he would “calmly wait” for his induction into baseball’s Hall of Fame, for which he became eligible in 2013. 
  • On 9th January 2013, he was not elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) into baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, receiving 12.5% on his first year on the ballot (the requirement for election is 75%). 

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Career highlights and awards

  • 7× All-Star (1995, 1998-2002, 2004)
  • NL MVP (1998)
  • 6× Silver Slugger Award (1995, 1998-2002)
  • NL Hank Aaron Award (1999)
  • Roberto Clemente Award (1998)
  • 2× NL home run leader (2000, 2002)
  • 2× NL RBI leader (1998, 2001)

Awards of Sammy Sosa

Sammy Sosa won the National League Most Valuable Player Award for leading the Cubs into the playoffs in 1998, earning every first-place vote except for the two casts by St. Louis writers, who voted for McGwire. He and McGwire shared Sports Illustrated magazine’s 1998 “Sportsman of the Year” award. Sosa was honored with a ticker-tape parade in his honor in New York City, and he was invited to be a guest at US President Bill Clinton’s 1999 State of the Union Address. He also received the Babe Ruth Home Run Award for leading MLB in homers. He won the Silver Slugger Award (an award for offensive output, voted on by managers and coaches) in 1995 and in 1998 through 2002.

Who is Sammy Sosa married to?

Sammy Sosa is a married man. He was married to Sonia Rodríguez, a Dominican TV dancer as a child, with whom he has six children: Keysha, Kenia, Sammy Jr., Michael, Kalexy, and Rolando. The couple was married by the Catholic Church on 18th December 2004, at Altos de Chavon, La Romana; they had already been married civilly for 12 years. The duo is enjoying their life a lot without any disturbances. His sexual orientation is straight. 

Previously, he was married to Karen Lee Bright in 1990, but the couple divorced in 1991. 

How much is Sammy Sosa’s Net Worth?

Sammy Sosa is a former professional baseball right fielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 19 seasons, primarily with the Chicago Cubs. With the baseball career, he has amassed huge money. As of 2020, the net worth of Sammy is believed to be $70 Million. His major source of earning is from a baseball career. Besides this, he might also be earning from various endorsement deals, sponsorship, and more. As of now, he is living a cool lifestyle from his earnings. 

How tall is Sammy Sosa?

Sammy Sosa is a very cool and handsome person. He has got a very charming wide smile attracting a lot of people towards him. He has got a perfect height matching with his body weight. His balanced height consists of 1.83 m whereas his weight is 102 Kg. His body build is average. Overall, he has got a healthy body with balanced body measurements. 

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