Monday, September 06, 1999
Sammy taking, hitting knocks
Cubs are bad, but Sosa's hot
BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[sosa]](http://reds.enquirer.com/img/photos/1999/09/090699sosa_150x102.jpg)
Sammy Sosa singles against the Dodgers Sunday.
(AP photo)
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CHICAGO — You still have the chase, but you don't have the race. Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire are chasing the home run record again, but the Chicago Cubs aren't in any kind of playoff race.
That makes things very different this year at Wrigley Field. The Reds will notice that when they come here to day for five games in four days. The crowds get loud when Sosa heads to the plate, but all is not well in the House of Sammy.
Sosa, last year's near-unanimous choice for the National League MVP, has been accused of being selfish, putting home runs above winning. There was a column in the Chicago Tribune Sunday that referred to him as “Sammy So-So.”
Sosa's numbers across the board are comparable to last year's. This year: .302 average, 57 home runs, 125 RBI, 141 strikeouts, 63 walks. Last year: .309 average, 66 home runs, 158 RBI, 171 strikeouts, 73 walks.
But because the Cubs are 251/2 games out the race in the National League Central, it's perceived that Sosa is swinging only for the fences and records.
The Tribune also runs a “Sammy vs. the Cubs” chart, which shows Sosa's home run total vs. the Cubs' win total. Sosa leads 57 to 55.
He says he is the same player with the same attitude.
“I had a great year last and the team had a great year,” he said. “I made a lot of mistakes, but nobody said anything. This year, the team is not having a good year. They have to pick on somebody. So they pick on me.”
Sosa showed in Sunday's 4-1 loss to Los Angeles there's more to his game than his big bat. He was 2-for-4 and drove in the Cubs' one run with a ground ball single.
“Sammy's just trying to hit the ball,” said Cubs manager Jim Riggleman. “Realistically, that's what happens when he lifts home runs. He just gets some loft under them. Today, he hit the ball hard on the ground.”
Defensively, Sosa also doubled up two Dodgers who strayed too far off the bag on flyouts.
“And they say I can't play defense,” he said. “When they criticize me, it motivates me. I'm trying to do my job, play the game like I can.”
Billy Williams, the Hall of Famer and Cubs coach, says Sosa is the same hitter as last year.
“A lot of people ask about it,” Williams said. “He's got his agenda. He wants to be the best he can be. But he's not swinging the bat any different.”
After last year, when McGwire hit a record 70 home runs and Sosa hit 66, the second most ever, some doubted whether Sosa would reach those heights again.
Sosa, after all, had never hit more than 40 before last year. Even he knew 60 would be a stretch.
“I thought if I hit 50, or even 40, that would a good year,” he said. “I've surprised a lot of people.”
Sosa leads McGwire 57 to 54. Both are virtual locks to become the first men in history to hit 60 homers in back-to-back seasons.
Sosa has overcome a slow start to get to the Ruthian heights again. He was hitting .253 with four home runs and 12 RBI on May 3. In the 111 games since, he has hit .312 with 53 homers and 113 RBI.
Williams was one of the people who saw Sosa's potential when the Cubs traded for Sosa in 1991. Sosa had never hit more than 15 home runs in a season when he came across town from the White Sox. Even when Sosa started to blossom — he hit .261 with 33 homers in '93 — Williams expected more.
“I said he was just scratching the surface,” Williams said. “He's proved me wrong (by hitting 66), but I always thought he'd hit 30, 35 home runs, steal a lot of bases and hit .300.”
Sosa began to think like a home run hitter around 1995.
“I started working hard in the weight room in the offseason,” he said. “I made a lot of progress. I saw what Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey were doing. I said, "I'd like to be there with those guys.'”
Sosa was there in 1996. He had 40 home runs on Aug. 20 when he was hit on the hand by a pitch, breaking a bone and ending his season.
He had an off year in in '97, hitting .251 with 36 home runs.
Then came the magical year of '98. Sosa started relatively slow, but he hit 57 homers and drove in 124 runs in his last 110 games.
What has transformed Sosa from merely good to very good to one of the game's two best power hitters?
“Experience,” Williams said. “He knows the pitchers. He's more selective. He's still aggressive, but he's aggressive in the strike zone.”
Despite the Cubs' woeful season, Sosa has kept fans in the seats and happy at Wrigley.
“Last year, we had three of the best stories in baseball,” WGN announcer Chip Caray said. “We had the Cubs in the playoff race after a disastrous 1997. We had Kerry Wood, the rookie of the year. And we had Sammy chasing McGwire.
“This year, we have Sammy.”
Still, the Cubs are on pace to draw 2.8 million fans. Sunday, they drew 39,921, their largest Sunday crowd of the year. Almost all of the fans were there in the bottom of the ninth to watch Sosa bat.
He singled, and the fans applauded. A home run would have brought an incredible roar. That's what they were there to see.
“People who criticize him for trying to hit home runs miss the point,” Caray said. “It's great to have someone the fans look forward to seeing. You don't hear people get on McGwire for hitting all fly balls.”
Sosa says he's the same Sammy, the guy America fell in love with during the chase of '98, and the same player. He says he isn't thinking about hitting 70. He's thinking about hitting Juan Guzman, who will start for the Reds today.
“If the (record's) going to be there for me, it's going to be there for me,” Sosa said. “I don't think about that. I think about who's throwing that day.”
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![[sosa]](http://reds.enquirer.com/img/photos/1999/09/090699sosa_500x339.jpg)