As far as Cubs hitting coach Jeff Pentland is concerned, Sammy Sosa’s meteoric rise from a flashy free-swinger to one of the game’s best hitters began on May 19, 1998, when the Dodgers were at Wrigley Field.
The box score from that game shows Sosa went 2-for-4 with a single and a double–sort of routine stuff. But Pentland saw much more.
“He hit two balls as hard as I’ve seen any human being hit them,” Pentland recalled. “They ricocheted off that brick wall and bounced back to the infield. They were 96-, 97-m.p.h. fastballs from Chan Ho Park, and they were up. But he got on top of them and hit one to left-center and one to right-center.
“I said to myself, `This guy has a chance to be something special.'”
Sosa already was a feared slugger who had averaged 38 homers in 1995-97. But he batted just .263 during that span and struck out more than three times as often as he walked.
“When I first saw Sammy, `underachieving’ is probably not the right word. But I saw a guy whose limits were lower than they should have been, in my opinion,” Pentland said. “He had tremendous quickness, tremendous strength. This guy took a back seat to nobody as far as his physical tools and aggressiveness. His behavior was, `Bring it on. I can hardly wait to swing.’ That part of it I loved. It’s the competitive nature, and Sammy was over the falls.
“I’ve had a lot of guys who were physically talented who never even got to the big leagues. To get out of the middle of the pack and to go to a higher level takes an incredible amount of desire and intensity Average is not good enough for him.”
Those who know him best say it’s Sosa’s blinding will to succeed that has led him to this point. With two more home runs, he’ll reach 500 for his career, becoming the 18th player to reach that milestone.
And if he goes deep twice more in the season’s final six games, he’ll become the first player in baseball history to homer at least 50 times in five seasons. Babe Ruth and Mark McGwire reached that mark four times.
“No matter what he’s accomplishing, he wants to accomplish more,” said Adam Katz, Sosa’s agent. “He is never satisfied. I mean, he’s borderline obsessive.”
What is the source of that desire?
Much of it comes from Sosa’s childhood in the Dominican Republic, when he shined shoes and cleaned cars for big-leaguers such as George Bell and Julio Franco. But Sosa offers a simpler explanation.
“It comes from my heart,” he said, tapping on his chest. “When you have that, nobody can stop you.”
His obsessive nature manifests itself in a desire to play every inning of every game.
“He plays a lot of days when a lot of guys would take days off,” general manager Jim Hendry said. “He won’t let you know when he’s hurt and doesn’t like to see doctors very often, and that’s admirable.
“I think the great ones are like that. I remember Joe Morgan saying something like: `Your best guy at 80 percent still should be better than the guy playing behind him.'”
Sosa averaged 160 games in 1997-2001 but has missed 12 games this season, including the three he sat out to be with his wife, Sonia, who needed hand surgery just before the All-Star break.
The other nine came after Sosa strained his neck and upper back in an Aug. 18 collision with second baseman Mark Bellhorn in shallow right field.
When Sosa returned to the lineup Sept. 2, he played both games of a meaningless doubleheader against Milwaukee.
“Maybe you would have liked to see him play one game instead of two,” trainer David Tumbas said. “But he said, `I’m in there,’ and you love that about a guy. There are times when you’d like a guy to take a day off, but that’s not him.”
Part of Sosa’s rationale for playing every day is that it reflects his dedication to his job. Sosa said he shuns the nightlife.
“I remember when I was 20, I used to go out a little bit,” he said. “But now I don’t do that. It gives me energy and keeps me focused on my job.”
Another explanation Sosa once offered is this: “I’m scared to take a day off. The day I take a day off is the day I can go 5-for-5.”
In other words Sosa can’t hit home runs from the bench.
“He’s very committed to his place in history,” Hendry said. “He takes care of himself all year and works hard in the off-season.
“He’ll be able to look back and not have any regrets about his effort or how he channeled his energy. He hasn’t let things off the field interfere with his success.”
