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Sammy
Sosa
by Beth Hering
Most
people know Sammy Sosa as one of the greatest sluggers in
baseball history. On June 20, 2007, Sammy hit his 600th career
home run, making him only the fifth player to ever reach that
monumental number. But did you know that before Slammin’
Sammy was crushing pitches out of American ballparks that
he was a shoeshine boy in his native Dominican Republic?
When Sammy was six, his father died. Sammy's mother told her
kids that they had to stick together and help keep the family
afloat. Sammy began getting up early to go out with his brothers
to shine shoes. They tried to do a really good job and offer
a fair price so that customers would return to them. After
school, the boys would go out again to wash cars. The money
they made went towards buying food and clothing.
Sammy enjoyed baseball, but he did not have money for equipment.
Instead, he made a glove out of a milk carton, a bat out of
a tree branch, and a ball from rolled up socks with tape around
it. Sammy never picked up a real bat or played organized baseball
until he was 14.
Sammy was a skinny 16-year-old when a baseball scout from
the United States saw him play. The scout gave him a contract
with the Texas Rangers plus a bonus for signing with the team.
Sammy promptly gave almost all the bonus to his mother.
The Rangers later traded Sammy to the Chicago White Sox, and
the White Sox eventually traded him to the Chicago Cubs. It
was with the Cubs that his career really took off. In 1997,
the team gave him a four-year, $42 million contract. The following
year, the Baseball Writers Association chose him as the Most
Valuable Player (MVP) for the National League.
Sammy later played for the Baltimore Orioles. In 2007, his
career came full circle as he returned to the Texas Rangers
as a designated hitter. This time with the Rangers, however,
he was not a timid young man who could barely speak English.
He was a veteran player, a father and husband, and a well-known
figure in both his native and adopted homeland.
Fun Facts about Sammy Sosa
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Sammy's historic 600th home run came in an interleague game
against his former team, the Chicago Cubs. The home run
came off of pitcher Jason Marquis, who was wearing number
21--the same jersey number Sammy wore when he played for
the Cubs. (Sammy wears number 21 on his jersey in honor
of Roberto Clemente, the first Latino to be inducted into
baseball's Hall of Fame.)
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Sammy hit 66 home runs during 1998, breaking the single-season
record of 61 set by Roger Maris in 1961. (Sammy's record
has since been broken by Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds.)
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When Sammy knows a ball he has hit is going to go out of
the park, he does a little jump before running the bases.
Announcers frequently call the movement “the pop and
hop.”
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In the Dominican Republic there is a statue of Sammy over
a fountain. Coins thrown in the water are given to shoeshine
boys.
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Sammy has given so many presents to sick kids and donated
so many supplies to schools that some people in the Dominican
Republic refer to him as Sammy Claus.
-
When Hurricane George devastated the Dominican Republic,
Sammy worked with the Red Cross to send 30,000 pounds of
rice and other relief items to the thousands of people left
homeless.
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