Sammy Sosa, ahh where to begin? I’ve made no secret through my years in the Cub blogosphere that Sammy Sosa is my favorite Cubs player. That has not changed, and truthfully it would take an awfully great player to make that change. I don’t feel in anyway that Sammy was any sort of perfect ballplayer. He had plenty of flaws, and you can find many who will list those flaws. For my memory, his strengths as a ballplayer outshine his flaws. One of the things that probably sounds stupid, is I always liked that he was a ballplayer that enjoyed playing the game. He flashed that smile on the field and genuinely seemed to enjoy playing the game. It was refreshing to see a guy enjoy himself in the fishbowl that MLB is.

I have too many memories of Sammy to list just one, so below I have listed several of my favorite Sosa memories:

I actually started rooting for Sammy when he was on the White Sox:

April 9, 1990— Sitting in the last row of the Upper Dack of Old Sox park to watch the last Opening Day at old Comiskey a couple friends of mine went on and on about Oklahoma State product and Sox rookie Robin Ventura. Just talking shit, I turned to them and said the best rookie on the White Sox team is Sammy Sosa. (truthfully I knew nothing about Sosa). But from that moment on I was a fan of Sammy.

May 5, 1996—against the Mets on Cinco de Mayo Sammy hits a 2 run homer in the first. Sammy wins it in the bottom of the ninth with a tape measure job of Pete Harnisch that breaks a window in a garden apartment across Waveland Ave. The tecate tasted real good that afternoon and evening.

June 15, 1998 —in June 1998 Sammy was as hot as any player ever. He hit twenty homeruns in the month.. On a very comfortable Monday night against the Milwaukee Brewers Sammy hit 3 homeruns in a 6-5 Cubs win. Sammy and the Cubs were heading for a very special season.

July 27 & 28, 1998—Sammy was now on the map as a major league slugger. But he was yet to hit a grand slam. He hit’s his first career grandslam in the 8th inning of the game on July 27th against Alan Embree. For good measure he does it in the fifth inning of the game on the 28th. It was incredible.

September 13, 1998—The Cubs and Brewers completed a crazy three game series with Sammy Sosa hitting 2 homeruns (totaling 4 in the series). Sammt’s two run job in the bottom of the ninth tied the ballgame and gave him 62 in the homerun race with Big Mac.

September 27, 2001—2001 was actually Sammy’s best season. On September 27, 2009 the Cubs returned home for the first time since September 11th. Sammy hit his 59th homerun of the season and waved a small American flag as he rounded the bases. It was a fantastic moment in a time when we were all shaken. snley & Pmayo did great writeups on this game earlier.

September 27, 2003 (game 2)—After winning game one of a twin bill with the Bucs the Cubs magic number stood at 1. In the bottom of the first innning Sammy, who had struggled at times in 2003, hit a bomb onto Waveland Avenue giving the Cubs a 1-0 lead. Wrigley Field was up for grabs. The Cubs would never give up that lead and went on to win 7-2 and clinch their first division title since 1989.

October 7, 2003—Game 1 of the NLCS. Two outs in the bottom of the ninth of Game 1 of the NLCS. Cubs down by two. Sammy Sosa hits a two run homer to tie the ballgame. Sadly, the Cubs would lose the game, but the disbelief that I had when he hit it, still remains. Sosa on baseball’s second biggest stage had delived in the clutch.

My final favorite Sammy Sosa moment came against the Chicago Cubs, just two summers ago. June 20, 2007—Sammy always had the flare for the dramatic. With the Cubs playing two interleague games in Arlington, TX, Sammy was sitting on 599 career dingers. With Jason Marquis wearing Sammy’s #21 on his back, Sosa hit a fifth inning homerun for number 600 in his great career. He was just the fifth player to hit 600 homeruns at that time.

When I think back on his career, I would say there has never been a Cubs player that brought me as many exciting memorable moments as Sammy Sosa. In the end I think that is probably why I remember Sammy so fondly. He was a player that you always made sure you didn’t miss his next AB. If I was going to the concession stand I made sure he wasn’t coming up. I never wanted to miss his AB’s, because something great could always happen.