The circus is in town and Sammy Sosa is as giddy as a kid with cotton candy.
Barry Bonds and Sosa will take center stage Tuesday night when the Cubs meet the San Francisco Giants to open a three-game series. It will be billed as a home-run hitter’s circus inside the Wrigley Field big top.
“It’s entertainment, baby,” Sosa said, doubling as an unofficial circus barker.
Bonds, the single-season home run record-holder with 73 last year, comes to town with eight, one behind Houston’s Lance Berkman. Sosa, who has six homers this season, is the only major league player to have hit 60 or more homers in three seasons. He walloped 64 last year, 63 in 1999 and 66 in 1998.
“A series like this and fans are going to be excited,” Sosa said. “I’m juiced every day. I’m ready to go. I go home and sleep well at night.”
Sosa might start getting restless if the Cubs (6-11) don’t start playing better. They’ve slipped into last place in the Central after losing two of three to Cincinnati over the weekend.
Sosa said if he were a fan, he would “pay to watch Barry Bonds play, definitely.
“And I would pay to come see Sammy Sosa too,” he added with a smile.
Bonds, who turns 38 in July, is in his 17th season and has 575 career homers. Sosa, 33, has 456 in his 14th season. Hank Aaron owns the career record of 755.
According to the “STATS, Inc. Major League Handbook 2002,” Sosa has a 47 percent chance of hitting 756 homers while Bonds has a 43 percent chance.
“I’m already close to 500 and I have more years left in my body,” Sosa said. “My main concern is if I play 162 games the next seven, eight years, the numbers will be there so I don’t have to put pressure on myself.”
Aaron, who never hit more than 47 homers in a single season, took 23 years to reach 755.
Cubs manager Don Baylor believes the race toward Aaron’s record will be difficult.
“It depends on your age at 650,” he said. “You’re still 100 away. It’s a tough thing.”
Sosa, though, is excited about the possibility.
“Records are made to be broken,” he said. “If it’s meant for me, I’ll be there. I just have to do my job.
“I play 162 games a year. Why quit now?”
Bonds, whose 58-game on-base streak ended Sunday in Houston, has been hampered by a hamstring injury this year. Yet he leads the majors in hitting with a .432 average.
Sosa marvels at Bonds’ selectivity at the plate. Bonds set a major-league record with 177 walks last season and still managed to eclipse Mark McGwire’s 3-year-old record by three home runs.
“Barry Bonds is more selective at the plate than I am,” Sosa said. “He has a smaller strike zone. That makes him much better.”
Sosa, though, has cut down on his free-swinging ways, drawing more than 100 walks for the first time while batting .328 last season.
“I don’t get my pitch too often,” he said. “The pitches that Barry doesn’t swing at, I swing at. I’m an aggressive hitter. He never misses.
“Every time he goes to the plate, he has an idea. What else can you say? He’s doing everything perfect. If you make a mistake they’re not going to come back in the park.”
Not only did Bonds hit 73 home runs last season, he bettered Babe Ruth’s single-season record with an .863 slugging percentage. Bonds also had the highest on-base percentage in the National League since 1899, with his .515 mark topped only two other times. Thirty-six of his homers came on the road, a record that was better than the marks of Ruth and McGwire.
Continued chilly weather and gusty winds are forecast this week, which could limit the home-run opportunities for Bonds and Sosa.
“It doesn’t matter to me if the wind is blowing out,” Sosa said. “I just have to make contact. Maybe it matters for the other guy . . . just kidding.”
