I was fifteen during the summer of 98, and was barely a baseball fan at the time, let alone a Cubs fan. My family is full of Cubs fans but as I grew up in the DC area and didn’t have cable for most of my childhood, my baseball fandom was pretty much confined to watching the playoffs, so I didn’t see much of the Cubs. Sosa changed all of that for me - the summer of 98 was when I became a fan of baseball on my own terms. Sosa just had fun playing baseball, and he shared his joy for playing baseball with everyone who watched him. Despite the fact that McGwire ‘won’ the HR chase, Sammy really seemed to be the player who kept it going and kept it friendly. He was right there to greet McGwire when he broke the record, and I still couldn’t believe that the record was broken with both men on the field - it’s probably still the best baseball moment I’ve ever witnessed.
My other favorite moment was years later, during the 2003 playoffs. My future wife and I had just moved in together and were still getting used to each others’ habits/hobbies/etc. She seemed kind of unsure about this whole Cubs thing, though she did enjoy watching games with me. Just before the playoffs, mlb introduced their “I live for this” ad campaign, and one of the ads starred Sosa (sadly I can’t seem to find it online anywhere). He gushed (in only the way that Sosa can) about how lucky he was to be playing baseball, and to play at Wrigley field. My wife ‘got it’ why everyone was such a huge fan. She became a huge fan of Sosa (and later, Kenny Lofton and Eric Karros, among other Cubs) and dove right into the 2003 playoffs with me. As awful as the outcome ended up being, it was one of the best experiences of my lifetime, and I’m glad I got to share it with her.
Some audio clips from 98
Sosa HR montage
Sosa addresses the fans
1. MB21 (view all comments) — Jun 04, 2009 @ 09:08 AM
That audio of Pat of Ran gives me goose bumps. I’ve listened to it about 5 times this morning already. Great stuff.