Kerry Wood was a warrior and the unofficial leader of the Cubs players who were old school, respectful and thoughtful of the fans, their teammates and their team. Every guy inside Chicago sports says Kerry Wood smashed Sosa's boom box. I believe it and so does every other fellow Chicagoan I've ever met.
I remember hearing about Hee-seop Choi, the Cubs’ first baseman who had a brief moment of fame in the early 2000s, shutting off Sammy Sosa’s boombox during an interview because it was too loud. That caused some trouble between them back then. But man, hearing that Kerry Wood straight-up smashed that thing Texas-style? That’s satisfying on a whole other level, even 20 years later. Makes me respect Kerry even more!
"The Chase" between McGuire and Sosa sticks out in the minds of every single damn kid that grew up in the late 90s. Everyone was watching that. It was so exciting back then.
Best season in my lifetime. The guy who bought some of the biggest balls from that year, Todd McFarlane, a few years ago contacted me to do a free signing in my comic book shop. Most surreal experience ever. Todd is an amazing guy. When asked if he has any regrets about paying so much for those balls? None. He says every time there is a homerun record chase in baseball, he is brought up, so the press is worth it. Not to mention he's not exactly poor these days from his comic book company and toy company.
For real. McGwire and Sosa saved baseball back then. You can tell they were both taking steroids. Everyone knew. They were making so much money for MLB.
I will always remember him for the Denny's commercial with Tony Gwynn where he says "Don't feel so bad, Tony. I got traded for Wade Boggs and a side of rice pilaf."
And yet no one blames Sellig... he knew about this and allowed it in order to make the sport more popular and then he threw all of them under the bus. Edit: For those saying people actually blame Sellig, remember HE IS in the HOF while the players he basically used to boost popularity ARE NOT.
Nah we blame him along with the cheaters. There were plenty of clean players who got robbed of jobs, robbed of accolades, etc. Just because Zellig was complicit does not mean the cheaters are absolved of their wrong doings.
April 16, 2004: 20 years ago today we have a Hummer limo and a box at Wrigley for my Bud's 18th birthday. Sosa andAlou go back to back in the 10th to win it. Ken Griffey also hit the hardest ball ive ever seen. Whole game is on UA-cam, what a day!
@@timothyconard2825well since he was also cheating yeah, it would mean he'd have to be the best - and he wasn't. Edit - that's like saying it's hard to be the MVP in the league... like yeah no 💩Sherlock 😂.
As a Chicago kid growing up in the late 90s and 00s, Sammy Sosa will always be my favorite player regardless of what he did. He changed the game for so many in this city and at times was the only hope and fun Cubs fans had . Even though he looks like Franken Berry now, He’s my personal GOAT
We used him up and then threw him out when we were done with him. Anyone with half a brain knew that Sosa, Big Mac, and Bonds were on the juice but we loved the records falling and the long ball. One of the great ironies is that Selig is in the HOF and many of the players that doped might never get inducted.
Man. This is the guy that really made me fall in love with the game. I’ll never forget that summer in ‘98. But he needs to come clean. As for the unnamed teammate who destroyed the boom box, my guess would be Carlos Zambrano. He was known to have quite a temper lol
Its funny you mention his yearly decline, but don't mention that he was injured and really just playing fewer games each year. His HR went from 49 to 40 to 35 to 14, but his games also went from 150 to 137 to 126 to 102. And really the only terrible year from efficiency was 2004. But then he played consistently in 2007 for the first half of the year and his numbers jumped back up to 21 HR 92 RBI and a .252 avg before the Rangers decided to shut him down in favor of playing younger guys. I'm not going to argue that Sammy didn't use steroids, since everyone was. But his drop was way less severe than guys like Pujols, whose numbers plummeted even when he did play every day. And Sosa at 38, clearly past the steroid era, was way better than Pujols at 38
It's crazy how MLB turned on the players that saved them from going under. They could have introduced PED testing without throwing them all under the bus.
Everyone wanted to see how far they could push the limits of the human body. While I agree that it’s kind of unfair for clean players it was what the fans wanted at the time.
@@yankees29There was lots going on behind the scenes. If the users had came forward, admitted it, and said it wasn't illegal, it probably would have been fine. However, the users started lying publicly, paying blackmail, and one even approached his agent about how to hire a hitman. The worst of the worst is still unknown to most.
@@deplorablepepe7576 I mean I graduated high school in 95 and I knew what was going on long before that….🤣 athletes from my generation were doing juice from early high school on. I actually went to high school with a famous juice head. So i wasn’t really upset about it. Idk everyone was on something.
A few notes... Harry Caray died after the '97 season. The Cubs were that bad. I'm glad you mentioned Sosa's 30/30 chain necklace. It would have been great to see a picture of it. That thing was ridiculous. The Cubs broadcast team of Chip Caray and Steve Stone weren't fired. Both were offered contract extensions, and both refused. Both had made comments critical of the Cubs, including Stone saying something to the effect of Kerry Wood should go sell cars. Both had been barred from flying with the team, and some players had even placed calls to the broadcast booth complaining about their comments during games. There was definitely animosity between the players and announcers, and it seems that both parties were better off moving on, but they weren't fired. An interesting note about the corked bat; the barrel of the bat, which was not recovered by the umpires and would've had the majority of the cork, completely disappeared. No one knows what happened to it after it was retrieved by a Cubs bat boy. There was a group of players that stayed late when the boom box was destroyed. They sat around drinking beer and one of this lot, described as being "a veteran position player known for his intensity and unselfishness," was the culprit/hero. That being said, I don't think it was a position player. Looking at the roster, I don't see many position players who were with the Cubs for an extended period that fit that description. It's long been rumored that Kerry Wood did it, and I think it would be harder to prove any other player as responsible.
Funny that I never really heard of harry caray until my great uncle told me during his time in ww2 fighting Japanese soldiers what they would do to off themselves when surrounded ( my great uncle could talk all day long about his two years in the Navy in his battles rip Uncle Bill) and of course Will Ferrell doing that impersonation . Being a dodgers fan I had only really known of the great late Vin Scully and Rick Monday and knowing Scotter Rizutto doing Yankees games.
It's sad that these players felt the need to cheat. They all had enough talent to be great without steroids, but the ridiculous chase for homeruns watered down the record books.
They did not Cheat what they used at that time WAS NOT. BANNED in Baseball it was not illegal either…You do know ( maybe you don’t) many ball payers from the 60s and 70s took AMPHETAMINES which were Illegal Many HOF players from that era used AMPHETAMINES The Owners the coaches the Managers all knew fully well that some players on their teams were using steroids They said ABSOLUTELY nothing Baseball knew about steroids and they ignored or encourage it.Then out self preservation they went and threw these players under the Bus Are you that naive not to see the Hypocrisy here ? Every single one of these players should be in The HOF
How does the Baseball Historian fail to mention that Wilson Alvarez’s no-hitter was in his first major league start?! 😂 Anyway, absolutely love the channel! Thanks for all your hard work!
it was his debut with the White Sox . Not his first major league start . Bumpus Jones a Reds pitcher in 1892 no hit the Pirates in his first ever game . The only pitcher to ever have a no hitter his first start .
The truth is that steroids allowed these guys to do things they never did before and never did after drug testing came into MLB. The biggest cheater was really Barry Bonds, he not only never admitted to anything but he allowed a close friend(?) to spend time in prison for him. So, these guys should not have any of their records recognized. On the other hand, MLB and everyone with a pulse knew what was going on with the McGwire/Sosa "Chase". That "Chase" saved baseball, along with all the homers that were being hit by other players. Remember the Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux Nike commercial around 1999? "Chicks Dig the Long Ball" showed 2 thin, non muscular pitchers working out and hitting home runs and having "chicks" like Heather Locklear "dig" them. MLB used the homers to bring back fans and make more money than ever, up to that point in time. Years later MLB and others acted like they were shocked and disappointed about steroid/PEDS, they're a bunch of hypocrite liars. Sosa was an immature, selfish guy and when you hear someone his age telling you that he's mature, that says it all. Mature men in their 50's don't have to tell other men that they are mature. Continuing to not answer questions to which there is an obvious answer definitely doesn't help the situation either.
most men use their physical age as a substitute for virtue. Also, concerning baseball, football, and basketball: Its not about what happens on the field. Its what happens OFF the field. The fights, the sex, car crashes, money splurges, the drugs, etc. Thats what makes ballsports sell so well.
As a Cubs fan who lived 4 blocks from Wrigley, those Sosa years were glorious, baseball is entertainment, and Sammy was a elite level entertainer, baseball stopped being a holier than thou sport, watching Sammy Sosa hit was exciting
Shows you how standards are lowered so much since drug testing. Also shows how much of an advantage drugs gives you. Also shows you why baseball is boring and losing viewers.
@@joeiborowski9763 standards aren't lowered at all you clown lmao. Batting average is an overrated and unreliable stat that no longer has much importance. OBPS+S for example being one of several much more important stats. You're never going to see someone hit 70 dingers without drugs.
@@tgorefan I'm sure Tiddly Wink players think their sports is the most fun and popular but google is your friend. Baseball is tied at 9% with soccer, which barely registered in the polls 20 years ago and whose popularity is not likely to drop with the likes of Lionel Messi making the move to the MLS. The classic American sport is barely ahead of motor racing for sports fans’ favorite sport to watch.
My wife worked with a young kid confined to a wheelchair at a local school. He was a big Sammy Sosa fan he got a chance to travel to Chicago to meet Sosa. He was so excited. Well it turned out to be a disaster he was not a fan after that. He did say a player named Ron Coomer was nice to him. Coomer played in Minnesota here at one time and was known to be a wonderful man. Kudos to RC .
If Ortiz is in so should Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and Palmeiro. Let 'em all in or keep 'em all out. The MLB HOF is much more of a popularity contest than it is a sanctuary of baseball greatness. Sosa cheated, but so did many other players in the HOF. I'm not here advocating for Sammy Sosa, I'm here to talk about the hypocrisy of MLB. I'm a lifelong and die hard fan of the sport to this day, but they have some things to work out.
How did Ortiz cheat? I'm sorry but if you knew the rules and broke them you shouldn't be in the hof period. The its all a popularity contest doesn't hold muster.
Before he got jacked, Sammy Sosa was one of the best fielding outfielders in baseball and would have gone 30/30 three straight years if not for the strike. The narrative around Bonds is "Look at how good he was before steroids" but Sammy Sosa doesn't get the same grace from fans for some reason and people talk about him like he was a one tool player which not true at all. ALSO Sosa had a natural aging curve where he peaked at age 29 and then tailed off into his mid 30 -- like a normal player. Unlike Bond's age 42 having 169 OPS+ So Sammy Sosa was weird. So what? It's not like Sosa ever got charged with perjury.
Lol sorry bro. Lifelong cubby fan here. It's kind of laughable to compare pre juice sosa to pre juice Bonds. They both hit for some power and stole some bases as youngsters. However Bonds consistently had a BA .040 points higher and an OBP .100 points higher. I don't believe sosa won a gold glove, and I don't recall him ever being thought of as one of the best. He had good speed and a rocket arm. I recall him misplaying a lot of balls later in his career. Steroids might make you too slow to get to a fly ball, but it doesn't cause you to turn the wrong way or misjudge where the wall is. That's poor instincts. He might have been better defensively than bonds, but not a whole lot and not enough to overcome the offensive prowess of Barry bonds.
@@robertgriffin5703 It's impossible to prove Barry never did steroids early on. All we know is when he decided to get huge. You don't have to use steroids to get huge. You can use them just to stay healthy. You can use them to spend less time in the gym. Still cheating and we'll never know. Sammy on the other hand had a normal career trajectory. He peaked at the normal years and declined in the normal years.
@@robertgriffin5703 You should not lmaoo everytime hes asked about it he comes off as a guilty person hiding...I have no doubt that he took them but he'll probably take it to his grave 😂
If you look at the seasons before 1998, Sosa's career line is .257/.308/.469, with a wRC+ of 102, which is average. His walk rate was only 6.3%, his strikeout rate was 23.5%, he was a mediocre baserunner (5.3 BsR over 9 seasons), and yeah, by Total Zone he was a very good defender in right field. His career WAR to that point was 22.9. Realistically, without his home run explosion he likely would have been a Hall of Very Good type player (and even with his monster seasons he's still at best a borderline HoF guy who I would keep out, mostly because his game was essentially about power and nothing else). Yes, he had enough speed to steal 30+ bases a season, but he was only successful 70% of the time in that span (generally 75% is right on the border of providing value stealing bases. Realistically he should have either been less aggressive or just stopped stealing entirely, as he was providing negative value). You're correct in saying that Sosa was not a one-tool player, but he was essentially a two-tool player, with one of those tools being due for massive regression as he aged. Also, I don't understand why you're talking about Sosa's career being "like a normal player" as if there wasn't something very odd about the fact that he went from a 30 homer a year guy (he hit 40 once) to averaging nearly 60 homers a year from 1998 to 2002. His wRC+ dropped 40 points over two years in his mid-30s, and then within three years he was out of baseball. Sure, Bonds was an aberration, but then he was exactly that for his entire career. I'm not going to argue that Bonds never juiced, but if you compare him to some other Hof caliber players, you get things like: Albert Pujols with a 149 wRC+ in his final season, aged 42 (honestly probably a couple years older than that) after being a below-average hitter the previous five seasons Willie Mays with a 157 wRC+ at 40, and a 132 wRC+ at 41, before injuries ended his career with a sub-par third of a season with the Mets (which should never have happened, dude should have been with the Giants through his entire career) Luke Appling with a 130 wRC+ at 42, 15 points about his career number Stan Musial with a 140 wRC+ at 41, which was roughly his average number from his aged 34 season to his aged 39 season Edgar Martinez with a 142 wRC+ at 40, and a 141 the year prior Darrell Evans with a 132 wRC+ at 40 Dave Winfield with a 140 wRC+ at 40 Hank Aaron with a 177(!) wRC+ at 39 Rickey Henderson with a 135 wRC+ at 40 My point is not that it should be expected that players can consistently be excellent hitters into their late 30s and early 40s, but that HoF players tend to be HoF players because they were able to perform at a high level well into their careers. Bonds is not an outlier when you look at players who were MVP-level early in their careers, didn't deal with injuries through most of their careers and (generally speaking) didn't play overly demanding positions like catcher (the only non-corner position players in that list were Appling and Mays, with everyone else generally playing first, third, left or right). The biggest reason why Bonds was so much better than a player like Griffey was not that he was exceptionally better when they were both in their primes, but because Bonds played a minimum of 130 games a season for all but 5 seasons of his career (one of those being his rookie season, another being the strike season, so really he only missed three seasons due to injury, and to be fair only 2005 saw him basically out for a whole year), while with Griffey from his aged 31 season on he only hit 130 twice, with 8 seasons just in that span seeing him lose at least 20% of the season due to injury (he had four seasons in that span in which he missed at least half the season). basically sosa's career tracks very well with players who relied on one or two tools for their value (in his case, power and defense, with his defense falling dramatically and his power falling off into his mid-30s), while bonds' tracks very well with true 5-tool players (and tbh i would rate bonds higher than basically every other 5 tool player, as he obviously hit more home runs than anyone else in history, he's in the top 25 all time in stolen bases [is also the only player in the 400-400 club, 500-500 club, 600-500 club, 700-500 club etc etc, and was successful about 78% of the time, so he was good and good for a long time], basically hit .300 for his career but is also in the top 6 all time for OBP [top 4 in the modern era] and is just behind Ted Williams for the highest walk rate of all time, was excellent in left during his early career [173 Total Zone runs and 20 UZR runs for four of his last six seasons, before injuries basically made him a statue), and a good arm that wasn't a rocket like Sosa, but was generally quick and accurate (172 career assists, which puts him 48th all time among OFs, although if we look at the modern era he's 10th all time).
As a person who watched Sammy Sosa everyday in Chicago. I always thought his steroid use wasn't as bad as people say or that he could have possibly worked his ass off. If you look at him in Texas Rangers clips, he skinny but you can see he swole and cut up, eps in his his back and shoulders. He honestly looked like he got a real trainer and gained some man weight and used some no explode or any other supliments during the off season. I honestly never knew anything about the batting coach slightly altering his batting stance. This could make a huge difference in his HR, along with the fact that he got stronger.
Fuckin' tired with this roids BS i grew up in the 90'swatching the '98run i loved it. It was dun as a kid everybody was doing it since the 70's big whoop!
Smashing that boom box seems like something Zambrano would do. The dude would break bats over his knee when he struck out and he did some damage to the dugout if he pitched a bad game.
Honestly when Sosa & Mac where going one for one was probably my favorite time to be a baseball fan. Even after everything. Great time to be a Chicago fan.
So he says. Still I think Rose should be in the HOF. He had an agreement with the commissioner at the time to be reinstated after 1 year. The commish dies 6 weeks later and Rose got f*cked out of his deal.
Yeah do you not realize how that could change the outcome of a game? If its the bottom of the ninth, up 1 with a runner in scoring position Rose might bring in the closer to hit it big with the gamblers. That could make it so the closer isnt available in later games. Anything that changes the fundamental way a baseball game is managed is bad.
@@trollingandtomfooleryInc. I've read your example numerous times now and I am having trouble understanding...Rose's team is up one, fielding, batting team (opponent) has a man in scoring position, correct? You wouldn't want to close out the game for the W? Are you proposing that you'd like to go to extra innings?
what kind of content do you make ? I might subsribe if its interesting in any wy and im 42 so Im interested in a wide array of topics...good luck and god bless
The one quote most appropriate : 'he could receive love, but he could never return it.' Most of them can't. Grab all the bling-bling you can, while you can. We've seen this all before. Never meet your idols - they'll let you down EVERY time. That's why I've never identified with entertainer types. They don't live in the world we do. They prance, they dance, they titillate in front of us - for a time - but then they grow old, someone new comes along, shoves them off the stage and we start the process again. WEB Dubois told black folks to develop their minds. Booker T. Washington told them to develop their skills. Then you have Jack Johnson, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, et al who are, at best, outliers, maybe even aberrations. Remember Charles Barkley's admission : 'I'm not a role model, I'm just an entertainer.' 😮
You are wrong about that! Many won't let you down. Some do, yeah, but not all. Foreman and Ali, two of the nicest boxers I've ever met. Ditka, Singletary, Fencik, Duerson and Payton were the nicest Bears I've met and forget about it, the Cubs of 84 and 69, all have been amazing!
I liked this guy playing little league i looked up to him , i wanted to hit the ball like him , but when i found out he cheated when i was able to hit the gym and never did roids or anything like that i did it natural and got good results , i think he would still have been a beast without roids but he let a whole generation down we looked up to him and mark. You either liked him or mark ,
In June of 1998 I went to Europe for my senior year trip with a bunch of other kids from my school. No smart phones, nobody had a laptop, it was hard to find American newspapers. Calls home were short and didn’t involve talking about sports. When we landed back in the US on July 2 someone bought a newspaper and it had a huge story on the front of the sports section about Sosa hitting 20 HR in June. All us sports fans were shocked by it. None of us had a clue that was happening while we were gone.
@@neonfroot Like I said, nobody in our group had a laptop with them. Even if someone did, the hostels we stayed at didn’t have free internet. And Internet cafes were few and far between. We spent most of the time in Germany watching soccer because they had almost no American sports on TV there. Only thing we watched was Game 6 of the NBA finals because we are from Iowa and loved the Chicago Bulls. So yeah, it was a different era.
I’m waiting for a video blaming Selig and the league offices, you know, the people who allowed the steroid use, turned a blind eye. Well, that’s until Barry Bonds started using them, then they all of a sudden took issue with it.
Love your channel dude! I got into baseball more a couple years ago and kinda have just be watching it. It's been cool learning the modern day players and culture. But your channel has been really helpful by teaching the lore of the game. So next time somebody makes a reference to an older player I'm not like "huh?! who?!" My fav watch so far was the Doc Gooden's, the story of his no hitter brought a lil tear to my eye. 🥲
Once Sammy comes clean, I'd welcome him back. We all mess up. Hard to say many wouldn't do the same if given the opportunity. So can't really fault the guy too hard. But now after the fact..... Just come clean, work with the kids, and rebuild your legacy. It's all ready there. Just gotta put the pieces back together.
@@LDQBBQ Oh man, it's not like there were plenty of other teams that did it better than Houston, although what the Astros did was not good. The funny fact was what the Astros did actually was ineffective and didn't really change anything.
Typical really. Likely Selig, the owners and the MLBPA were in on it. When you're talking people with that much power, influence and money its not surprising. Scapegoating is the name of the game.
No, he definitely shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame. Nobody that gets exposed as a cheater should be in the Hall of Fame, otherwise you're essentially promoting cheating. Nor should any of their statistical records be upheld. In fact, they probably should have been required to forfeit the majority of their salary for the years they were known to be cheating. They didn't respect the sport, why should they be respected as players? They're a bunch of frauds and should absolutely be treated as such. When a student gets caught cheating on a final exam, they fail the test and (almost always) fail the class. The same standards should be applied to major league sports. There should be no exceptions made for cheating charlatans, period.
I got into a heated argument with a friend because he believe that baseball execs didn’t know that players were juicing. I believed that there was no way in hell BB execs, managers, players, even concession workers didn’t know players were juicing. 😂
I grew up watching baseball in the 80's pre steroids and in middle school, we noticed the steroids. When Jose Canesco was in Oakland, we called him Jose Cansteroid. It was so obvious. As a joke, I wrote a letter to the Commissioner, got the address out of Baseball Digest, and mocked them for not being able to figure out something that every kid in America knows. Three years later, I actually received a reply out of the blue thanking me for taking time out to write and "your concerns are duly noted." Everyone knew. And yes, Selig and the execs don't deserve Cooperstown for this, and neither do the players. Sosa and McGwire wouldn't have had to save baseball if the owners didn't cancel a season and a World Series, and how many kids did players affect in a negative way by encouraging such a shortcut? They all cheated the game, the public, and themselves.
Still remember when I was at an Orioles Indians game way back in the day and everyone booed every time Sosa came up to bad and yelled “don’t use your practice bat” 😂😂😂
Threw my back out coughing. Missed a month of work. Had to get numbing injections in my spine. The doctors said the sneezing/coughing thing happens all the time and isn't rare, but extremely common.
The average ERA in the league went up by nearly a full run during the steroid era, from 3.6 to 4.5. People should have figured out something was wrong when 20-game winners had ERAs above 4!
Sosa (1997): “Beisbol has been bery, bery gud to me.” Sosa (Today): “This is um,….like I say um,…this is umm,….not a question I espected from yous.” Sosa’s Boombox: …………………. (R.I.P. 🪦 Boombox 😢)
Everyone was juicing back then. The summer that Mac and Sosa dueled it out was simply electric. Saved baseball after the lockout. Then they became scapegoats. It's been over 20 years, time to let them bask in the lights for a little while before it's too late and we lose them for good. This goes for Pete too...enough is enough...unban the man for effs sake
All of a sudden Sosa couldn't speak English. Coming from nothing, turning into a diva, turning into a cheater, turning into Granpa Munster. can't even come clean. NFHOF.
Sammy is and always will be my favorite player of all time. He’s the reason I’m a Cubs fan. He and Mark are why I am a fan of this game and nobody will ever take 1998 away from us.
As Sammy’s kindergarten baseball coach , that statement about the cubs coach being his most valuable , deeply offends me. You wouldn’t even be able to swing a bat in the first place without me , Sammy .
I will forever love Sammy because of the joy he brought to the city of Chicago and baseball. He was very likeable, unlike Bonds. He was a great player before the juice too. He could've easily had 40+ Hr seasons every year but wanted more.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Kerry Wood was a warrior and the unofficial leader of the Cubs players who were old school, respectful and thoughtful of the fans, their teammates and their team.
Every guy inside Chicago sports says Kerry Wood smashed Sosa's boom box. I believe it and so does every other fellow Chicagoan I've ever met.
Wow, never heard that before. I like Kerry Wood even more now.
🙄
Soda was as big as Evander Holyfed.I’m surprised Sosa didn’t put him in a headlock.
I doub it. He has too much class.
I remember hearing about Hee-seop Choi, the Cubs’ first baseman who had a brief moment of fame in the early 2000s, shutting off Sammy Sosa’s boombox during an interview because it was too loud. That caused some trouble between them back then. But man, hearing that Kerry Wood straight-up smashed that thing Texas-style? That’s satisfying on a whole other level, even 20 years later. Makes me respect Kerry even more!
That Ad was impeccable.
the only thing i learned from this video was that if you take enough steroids you'll turn into a vampire.
That was good!!!!
😂😂 winner winner
oh damn
Sosa turned white
And now the Cubs don’t want anything to do with him anymore!!!
"The Chase" between McGuire and Sosa sticks out in the minds of every single damn kid that grew up in the late 90s. Everyone was watching that. It was so exciting back then.
Best season in my lifetime. The guy who bought some of the biggest balls from that year, Todd McFarlane, a few years ago contacted me to do a free signing in my comic book shop. Most surreal experience ever. Todd is an amazing guy. When asked if he has any regrets about paying so much for those balls? None. He says every time there is a homerun record chase in baseball, he is brought up, so the press is worth it. Not to mention he's not exactly poor these days from his comic book company and toy company.
@@ashevillecomics637 That's awesome - SPAWN fan for life!
For real. McGwire and Sosa saved baseball back then. You can tell they were both taking steroids. Everyone knew. They were making so much money for MLB.
Nostalgia at its finest
i didn't even like baseball but i still watched it, and saw Juice Monkey McGwire break the record with my dad. Good memories
Bartman matters less than Alex Gonzalez booting the double play ball. We can leave Bartman out it.
It's like how people blamed a certain man in Boston and totally leave out Red Sox having a whole other game to try to win and they couldn't do it
not a cubs fan but they need to let that poor man go.
Alex Gonzalez looks at Bartman the same way Calvin Schiraldi looks at Bill Buckner.
I agree, Gonzalez totally fucked up that inning
that and Dusty Baker letting Mark Prior drown
Lifelong Cubs fan here
Bartman did nothing wrong. Cubs had 3 chances to put the Marlins away, and failed to do so in games 5-7.
I will always remember him for the Denny's commercial with Tony Gwynn where he says "Don't feel so bad, Tony. I got traded for Wade Boggs and a side of rice pilaf."
I hope you were able to write off that Montreal trip
And yet no one blames Sellig... he knew about this and allowed it in order to make the sport more popular and then he threw all of them under the bus.
Edit: For those saying people actually blame Sellig, remember HE IS in the HOF while the players he basically used to boost popularity ARE NOT.
Nah we blame him along with the cheaters. There were plenty of clean players who got robbed of jobs, robbed of accolades, etc. Just because Zellig was complicit does not mean the cheaters are absolved of their wrong doings.
@@chunkymonkey428Do you both mean Selig? As is Bud Selig, the commissioner during this time?
Zelig (with one L) is a Woody Allen film from the 1980s.
@@chunkymonkey428
Everyone was complicit...because it was entertaining. Sports are just entertainment and not actually important.
@@notreallyadog9646😂
Mfer gets to be in the hall of fame
April 16, 2004: 20 years ago today we have a Hummer limo and a box at Wrigley for my Bud's 18th birthday. Sosa andAlou go back to back in the 10th to win it. Ken Griffey also hit the hardest ball ive ever seen. Whole game is on UA-cam, what a day!
what a memorable celebration. totally cool
The sneezing injury is legit. As I've gotten older & realized how important it is to stay active in order to prevent such lame injuries.
That is absolutely nuts that he had 3 60 home run seasons and didn’t lead the league once
Ironically he led the NL in HRs in 2000 and 2002 with 50 and 49.
Hard to be at the top during the Cheaters' Era.
@@timothyconard2825well since he was also cheating yeah, it would mean he'd have to be the best - and he wasn't.
Edit - that's like saying it's hard to be the MVP in the league... like yeah no 💩Sherlock 😂.
- Because there was a greater bigger cheater: MARK MCGUIRE...@@KrakenIsland64
Give all the drug cheats an asterisk
Tim McClelland was also the homeplate ump for the George Brett pinetar game.
That's an excellent note.
Yes, now that you mentioned it!!!
As a Chicago kid growing up in the late 90s and 00s, Sammy Sosa will always be my favorite player regardless of what he did. He changed the game for so many in this city and at times was the only hope and fun Cubs fans had . Even though he looks like Franken Berry now, He’s my personal GOAT
👍🏾👍🏾
I'm not sure why anyone cares
@@KennethFrierson-wt6xt Aight Kenny chill out
@@LGPanthers1 who's Kenny 👀
I stopped watching baseball because of him and McGuire
He got old, retired, then turned white
That he did 😂
He reminds me of an orange that's been left out on the kitchen counter too long.
and halved his size
He was/is kind of purple at one point
We used him up and then threw him out when we were done with him. Anyone with half a brain knew that Sosa, Big Mac, and Bonds were on the juice but we loved the records falling and the long ball.
One of the great ironies is that Selig is in the HOF and many of the players that doped might never get inducted.
Man. This is the guy that really made me fall in love with the game. I’ll never forget that summer in ‘98. But he needs to come clean. As for the unnamed teammate who destroyed the boom box, my guess would be Carlos Zambrano. He was known to have quite a temper lol
Kerry Wood.
He isn’t Ernie Banks, that’s for damn sure.
Especially on the matter of ethics and integrity.
Yet, much of the public excoriated Banks too… I wonder why?
Its funny you mention his yearly decline, but don't mention that he was injured and really just playing fewer games each year. His HR went from 49 to 40 to 35 to 14, but his games also went from 150 to 137 to 126 to 102. And really the only terrible year from efficiency was 2004. But then he played consistently in 2007 for the first half of the year and his numbers jumped back up to 21 HR 92 RBI and a .252 avg before the Rangers decided to shut him down in favor of playing younger guys.
I'm not going to argue that Sammy didn't use steroids, since everyone was. But his drop was way less severe than guys like Pujols, whose numbers plummeted even when he did play every day. And Sosa at 38, clearly past the steroid era, was way better than Pujols at 38
It's crazy how MLB turned on the players that saved them from going under. They could have introduced PED testing without throwing them all under the bus.
That would have been smart considering there were no rules against what they did.
Everyone wanted to see how far they could push the limits of the human body. While I agree that it’s kind of unfair for clean players it was what the fans wanted at the time.
@@yankees29There was lots going on behind the scenes. If the users had came forward, admitted it, and said it wasn't illegal, it probably would have been fine.
However, the users started lying publicly, paying blackmail, and one even approached his agent about how to hire a hitman. The worst of the worst is still unknown to most.
@@deplorablepepe7576 I mean I graduated high school in 95 and I knew what was going on long before that….🤣 athletes from my generation were doing juice from early high school on. I actually went to high school with a famous juice head. So i wasn’t really upset about it. Idk everyone was on something.
Exactly! In the end all it did was destroy the popularity of it's own sport.
Just discovered this channel. Looks like I struck gold! Keep up the great work, my friend. Happy holidays
A few notes...
Harry Caray died after the '97 season. The Cubs were that bad.
I'm glad you mentioned Sosa's 30/30 chain necklace. It would have been great to see a picture of it. That thing was ridiculous.
The Cubs broadcast team of Chip Caray and Steve Stone weren't fired. Both were offered contract extensions, and both refused. Both had made comments critical of the Cubs, including Stone saying something to the effect of Kerry Wood should go sell cars. Both had been barred from flying with the team, and some players had even placed calls to the broadcast booth complaining about their comments during games. There was definitely animosity between the players and announcers, and it seems that both parties were better off moving on, but they weren't fired.
An interesting note about the corked bat; the barrel of the bat, which was not recovered by the umpires and would've had the majority of the cork, completely disappeared. No one knows what happened to it after it was retrieved by a Cubs bat boy.
There was a group of players that stayed late when the boom box was destroyed. They sat around drinking beer and one of this lot, described as being "a veteran position player known for his intensity and unselfishness," was the culprit/hero. That being said, I don't think it was a position player. Looking at the roster, I don't see many position players who were with the Cubs for an extended period that fit that description. It's long been rumored that Kerry Wood did it, and I think it would be harder to prove any other player as responsible.
Funny that I never really heard of harry caray until my great uncle told me during his time in ww2 fighting Japanese soldiers what they would do to off themselves when surrounded ( my great uncle could talk all day long about his two years in the Navy in his battles rip Uncle Bill) and of course Will Ferrell doing that impersonation . Being a dodgers fan I had only really known of the great late Vin Scully and Rick Monday and knowing Scotter Rizutto doing Yankees games.
2:00 SO nice to hear the great George Kell on that call.
I grew up as a Tiger fan in the 60's and 70's, he and Ernie Harwell were the broadcasters, those were good times.
Indeed; he is sooooo missed.
Kerry wood broke the box
The ghost of Ernie Banks broke it.
It's sad that these players felt the need to cheat.
They all had enough talent to be great without steroids, but the ridiculous chase for homeruns watered down the record books.
They did not Cheat what they used at that time WAS NOT. BANNED in Baseball it was not illegal either…You do know ( maybe you don’t) many ball payers from the 60s and 70s took AMPHETAMINES which were Illegal Many HOF players from that era used AMPHETAMINES The Owners the coaches the Managers all knew fully well that some players on their teams were using steroids They said ABSOLUTELY nothing Baseball knew about steroids and they ignored or encourage it.Then out self preservation they went and threw these players under the Bus Are you that naive not to see the Hypocrisy here ? Every single one of these players should be in The HOF
Fans wanted HRs, MLB wanted fans. You can blame the players, but they were just doing what the fans and corporate league were asking for.
But the Yankees signing every big free agent since 1979 is completely fair.
He looking like grandpa munster 😂😂😂
It seems like Big Papa Ortiz gets a pass.
@user-nv5iq3bp8l yes I was going to say Ortiz appears on that same list..
Boombox im going to say Carlos Zambrano
It was Kerry Wood
😂
@@raychapman1134
A pitcher who knows how to use a bat!
@@jamesoreilly16 Haha!
@@jamesoreilly16 Wood was a good hitter!
The HOF should have roid, no roid sections.
No difference at this point. There are many Hall of famers who took steroids and everyone knows it.
@@joelrodriguez1232True!!!
How does the Baseball Historian fail to mention that Wilson Alvarez’s no-hitter was in his first major league start?! 😂
Anyway, absolutely love the channel! Thanks for all your hard work!
it was his debut with the White Sox . Not his first major league start . Bumpus Jones a Reds pitcher in 1892 no hit the Pirates in his first ever game . The only pitcher to ever have a no hitter his first start .
"He was unreliable at the plate batting 253 with 35 humeruns" that's a wild statement in 2024
It's part of why baseball is disappointing to me at the moment.
Hardly anyone hits for average now above 250. It's such a bummer
The truth is that steroids allowed these guys to do things they never did before and never did after drug testing came into MLB. The biggest cheater was really Barry Bonds, he not only never admitted to anything but he allowed a close friend(?) to spend time in prison for him. So, these guys should not have any of their records recognized.
On the other hand, MLB and everyone with a pulse knew what was going on with the McGwire/Sosa "Chase". That "Chase" saved baseball, along with all the homers that were being hit by other players. Remember the Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux Nike commercial around 1999? "Chicks Dig the Long Ball" showed 2 thin, non muscular pitchers working out and hitting home runs and having "chicks" like Heather Locklear "dig" them. MLB used the homers to bring back fans and make more money than ever, up to that point in time. Years later MLB and others acted like they were shocked and disappointed about steroid/PEDS, they're a bunch of hypocrite liars.
Sosa was an immature, selfish guy and when you hear someone his age telling you that he's mature, that says it all. Mature men in their 50's don't have to tell other men that they are mature. Continuing to not answer questions to which there is an obvious answer definitely doesn't help the situation either.
most men use their physical age as a substitute for virtue.
Also, concerning baseball, football, and basketball: Its not about what happens on the field. Its what happens OFF the field.
The fights, the sex, car crashes, money splurges, the drugs, etc.
Thats what makes ballsports sell so well.
Spelled backwards Yammas Asos 😂Harry Caray used to say that .
As a Cubs fan who lived 4 blocks from Wrigley, those Sosa years were glorious, baseball is entertainment, and Sammy was a elite level entertainer, baseball stopped being a holier than thou sport, watching Sammy Sosa hit was exciting
Me too - 4 blocks away same time. It was great.
Those numbers he had as an "unreliable" player in 2004 (.253 BA 35 HRs) would make him an All Star in 2024!
Shows you how standards are lowered so much since drug testing. Also shows how much of an advantage drugs gives you. Also shows you why baseball is boring and losing viewers.
@@joeiborowski9763 standards aren't lowered at all you clown lmao. Batting average is an overrated and unreliable stat that no longer has much importance. OBPS+S for example being one of several much more important stats. You're never going to see someone hit 70 dingers without drugs.
@@joeiborowski9763baseball ain’t boring or losing viewers old man
@@tgorefan I'm sure Tiddly Wink players think their sports is the most fun and popular but google is your friend.
Baseball is tied at 9% with soccer, which barely registered in the polls 20 years ago and whose popularity is not likely to drop with the likes of Lionel Messi making the move to the MLS. The classic American sport is barely ahead of motor racing for sports fans’ favorite sport to watch.
@@joeiborowski9763 you do know people can watch and like more than 1 sport right? Viewership is up for the sport and will keep going up
As a kid Baseballer of the 90s and 00s. Nothing beat this era in baseball.
My wife worked with a young kid confined to a wheelchair at a local school. He was a big Sammy Sosa fan he got a chance to travel to Chicago to meet Sosa. He was so excited. Well it turned out to be a disaster he was not a fan after that. He did say a player named Ron Coomer was nice to him. Coomer played in Minnesota here at one time and was known to be a wonderful man. Kudos to RC .
My family and I sat behind him in the outfield at the old Comiskey Park. He still had his Jheri curls.
So many ads omg 😱
That chemical peel has been berry berry good to me
Scary looking these days, right😮!
If Ortiz is in so should Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and Palmeiro. Let 'em all in or keep 'em all out. The MLB HOF is much more of a popularity contest than it is a sanctuary of baseball greatness. Sosa cheated, but so did many other players in the HOF. I'm not here advocating for Sammy Sosa, I'm here to talk about the hypocrisy of MLB. I'm a lifelong and die hard fan of the sport to this day, but they have some things to work out.
How did Ortiz cheat? I'm sorry but if you knew the rules and broke them you shouldn't be in the hof period. The its all a popularity contest doesn't hold muster.
@@Denozo88Ortiz failed the same anonymous PED test that Sosa did in 2003. Electing Ortiz to the HoF is the definition of hypocrisy by the HoF voters.
Ortiz tested positive.
@@thejoshpresle when was this?
@@thejoshpresle and for what as one player was suspended for not getting a permission slip from mlb for his Adderall he was prescribed.
Before he got jacked, Sammy Sosa was one of the best fielding outfielders in baseball and would have gone 30/30 three straight years if not for the strike.
The narrative around Bonds is "Look at how good he was before steroids" but Sammy Sosa doesn't get the same grace from fans for some reason and people talk about him like he was a one tool player which not true at all. ALSO Sosa had a natural aging curve where he peaked at age 29 and then tailed off into his mid 30 -- like a normal player. Unlike Bond's age 42 having 169 OPS+
So Sammy Sosa was weird. So what? It's not like Sosa ever got charged with perjury.
Lol sorry bro. Lifelong cubby fan here. It's kind of laughable to compare pre juice sosa to pre juice Bonds. They both hit for some power and stole some bases as youngsters. However Bonds consistently had a BA .040 points higher and an OBP .100 points higher.
I don't believe sosa won a gold glove, and I don't recall him ever being thought of as one of the best. He had good speed and a rocket arm. I recall him misplaying a lot of balls later in his career. Steroids might make you too slow to get to a fly ball, but it doesn't cause you to turn the wrong way or misjudge where the wall is. That's poor instincts. He might have been better defensively than bonds, but not a whole lot and not enough to overcome the offensive prowess of Barry bonds.
I give benefit of the doubt to him but not to the same extent. Barry was the best player w/o steroids. Sosa was a top 30 player?
@@robertgriffin5703 It's impossible to prove Barry never did steroids early on. All we know is when he decided to get huge. You don't have to use steroids to get huge. You can use them just to stay healthy. You can use them to spend less time in the gym. Still cheating and we'll never know.
Sammy on the other hand had a normal career trajectory. He peaked at the normal years and declined in the normal years.
@@robertgriffin5703 You should not lmaoo everytime hes asked about it he comes off as a guilty person hiding...I have no doubt that he took them but he'll probably take it to his grave 😂
If you look at the seasons before 1998, Sosa's career line is .257/.308/.469, with a wRC+ of 102, which is average. His walk rate was only 6.3%, his strikeout rate was 23.5%, he was a mediocre baserunner (5.3 BsR over 9 seasons), and yeah, by Total Zone he was a very good defender in right field. His career WAR to that point was 22.9. Realistically, without his home run explosion he likely would have been a Hall of Very Good type player (and even with his monster seasons he's still at best a borderline HoF guy who I would keep out, mostly because his game was essentially about power and nothing else). Yes, he had enough speed to steal 30+ bases a season, but he was only successful 70% of the time in that span (generally 75% is right on the border of providing value stealing bases. Realistically he should have either been less aggressive or just stopped stealing entirely, as he was providing negative value).
You're correct in saying that Sosa was not a one-tool player, but he was essentially a two-tool player, with one of those tools being due for massive regression as he aged.
Also, I don't understand why you're talking about Sosa's career being "like a normal player" as if there wasn't something very odd about the fact that he went from a 30 homer a year guy (he hit 40 once) to averaging nearly 60 homers a year from 1998 to 2002. His wRC+ dropped 40 points over two years in his mid-30s, and then within three years he was out of baseball. Sure, Bonds was an aberration, but then he was exactly that for his entire career. I'm not going to argue that Bonds never juiced, but if you compare him to some other Hof caliber players, you get things like:
Albert Pujols with a 149 wRC+ in his final season, aged 42 (honestly probably a couple years older than that) after being a below-average hitter the previous five seasons
Willie Mays with a 157 wRC+ at 40, and a 132 wRC+ at 41, before injuries ended his career with a sub-par third of a season with the Mets (which should never have happened, dude should have been with the Giants through his entire career)
Luke Appling with a 130 wRC+ at 42, 15 points about his career number
Stan Musial with a 140 wRC+ at 41, which was roughly his average number from his aged 34 season to his aged 39 season
Edgar Martinez with a 142 wRC+ at 40, and a 141 the year prior
Darrell Evans with a 132 wRC+ at 40
Dave Winfield with a 140 wRC+ at 40
Hank Aaron with a 177(!) wRC+ at 39
Rickey Henderson with a 135 wRC+ at 40
My point is not that it should be expected that players can consistently be excellent hitters into their late 30s and early 40s, but that HoF players tend to be HoF players because they were able to perform at a high level well into their careers. Bonds is not an outlier when you look at players who were MVP-level early in their careers, didn't deal with injuries through most of their careers and (generally speaking) didn't play overly demanding positions like catcher (the only non-corner position players in that list were Appling and Mays, with everyone else generally playing first, third, left or right). The biggest reason why Bonds was so much better than a player like Griffey was not that he was exceptionally better when they were both in their primes, but because Bonds played a minimum of 130 games a season for all but 5 seasons of his career (one of those being his rookie season, another being the strike season, so really he only missed three seasons due to injury, and to be fair only 2005 saw him basically out for a whole year), while with Griffey from his aged 31 season on he only hit 130 twice, with 8 seasons just in that span seeing him lose at least 20% of the season due to injury (he had four seasons in that span in which he missed at least half the season).
basically sosa's career tracks very well with players who relied on one or two tools for their value (in his case, power and defense, with his defense falling dramatically and his power falling off into his mid-30s), while bonds' tracks very well with true 5-tool players (and tbh i would rate bonds higher than basically every other 5 tool player, as he obviously hit more home runs than anyone else in history, he's in the top 25 all time in stolen bases [is also the only player in the 400-400 club, 500-500 club, 600-500 club, 700-500 club etc etc, and was successful about 78% of the time, so he was good and good for a long time], basically hit .300 for his career but is also in the top 6 all time for OBP [top 4 in the modern era] and is just behind Ted Williams for the highest walk rate of all time, was excellent in left during his early career [173 Total Zone runs and 20 UZR runs for four of his last six seasons, before injuries basically made him a statue), and a good arm that wasn't a rocket like Sosa, but was generally quick and accurate (172 career assists, which puts him 48th all time among OFs, although if we look at the modern era he's 10th all time).
25:00, one of those guys made the Hall 😁
As a person who watched Sammy Sosa everyday in Chicago. I always thought his steroid use wasn't as bad as people say or that he could have possibly worked his ass off. If you look at him in Texas Rangers clips, he skinny but you can see he swole and cut up, eps in his his back and shoulders. He honestly looked like he got a real trainer and gained some man weight and used some no explode or any other supliments during the off season. I honestly never knew anything about the batting coach slightly altering his batting stance. This could make a huge difference in his HR, along with the fact that he got stronger.
Fuckin' tired with this roids BS i grew up in the 90'swatching the '98run i loved it. It was dun as a kid everybody was doing it since the 70's big whoop!
Smashing that boom box seems like something Zambrano would do. The dude would break bats over his knee when he struck out and he did some damage to the dugout if he pitched a bad game.
it was Wood.
I had read it was mark grace. Honestly grace seems the most likely to me Since he was a real team leader as opposed to what so-so pretended to be
I think Woody has a collection of things he had to pay for during his career due to temper. Water fountains coolers etc.
Just for his cubs years He averaged 41hrs and 108rbis a year. Not per 162 games. Per year
One of the best lead ins to a sponsor ad I’ve ever seen 🤣🤣 brilliant.
Hold the fuck up. Whos the guy at the end? Sammy Jackson? Wtf
Honestly when Sosa & Mac where going one for one was probably my favorite time to be a baseball fan. Even after everything. Great time to be a Chicago fan.
Pete Rose should be in the HOF before Sosa, hands down. Rose simply bet on *his own team winning*.
So he says. Still I think Rose should be in the HOF. He had an agreement with the commissioner at the time to be reinstated after 1 year. The commish dies 6 weeks later and Rose got f*cked out of his deal.
Yeah do you not realize how that could change the outcome of a game? If its the bottom of the ninth, up 1 with a runner in scoring position Rose might bring in the closer to hit it big with the gamblers. That could make it so the closer isnt available in later games. Anything that changes the fundamental way a baseball game is managed is bad.
@@trollingandtomfooleryInc. I've read your example numerous times now and I am having trouble understanding...Rose's team is up one, fielding, batting team (opponent) has a man in scoring position, correct?
You wouldn't want to close out the game for the W? Are you proposing that you'd like to go to extra innings?
@ Its not the best example, watch And Thats Baseball’s video of it, he explains it better. “Why Pete Rose should be BANNED by the Hall of Fame”
24:00 is quite possibly the most unhinged line ever spoken in a baseball video.
the anonymous cub who destroyed the boom box was Kerry Wood.
I heard it was Harry Carry
@@TonyJackaloni that purple nosed drunk couldn’t even find his pecker when he needed to take a leak. Let alone smash a boombox. 😂
I said either him or Alou
I heard it was Ernie Banks.
@@TonyJackaloni Yeah, his ghost!! LOL!
Love the game of baseball! I started my own channel, and I am still growing slowly. I love watching your videos! Thanks for the inspirations
what kind of content do you make ? I might subsribe if its interesting in any wy and im 42 so Im interested in a wide array of topics...good luck and god bless
Who's the white guy pretending to be Sammy Sosa?
Did you call hitting .253 with 35 homers unreliable?
The one quote most appropriate : 'he could receive love, but he could never return it.' Most of them can't. Grab all the bling-bling you can, while you can. We've seen this all before. Never meet your idols - they'll let you down EVERY time. That's why I've never identified with entertainer types. They don't live in the world we do. They prance, they dance, they titillate in front of us - for a time - but then they grow old, someone new comes along, shoves them off the stage and we start the process again. WEB Dubois told black folks to develop their minds. Booker T. Washington told them to develop their skills. Then you have Jack Johnson, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, et al who are, at best, outliers, maybe even aberrations. Remember Charles Barkley's admission : 'I'm not a role model, I'm just an entertainer.' 😮
You are wrong about that! Many won't let you down. Some do, yeah, but not all. Foreman and Ali, two of the nicest boxers I've ever met. Ditka, Singletary, Fencik, Duerson and Payton were the nicest Bears I've met and forget about it, the Cubs of 84 and 69, all have been amazing!
Cool story
Its not just entertainers. alot of intellectuals were also historical degenerates.
The concept of role models in general is morally lazy and is dumb.
@24:30 I'm not sure there's a stat that reveals less about steroid use than RBI totals...
I’ll tell you what, Rocket Money got their money’s with your plug. You should be charging more since you’re obviously giving more
I liked this guy playing little league i looked up to him , i wanted to hit the ball like him , but when i found out he cheated when i was able to hit the gym and never did roids or anything like that i did it natural and got good results , i think he would still have been a beast without roids but he let a whole generation down we looked up to him and mark. You either liked him or mark ,
Three 60 homerun years
And didn't even lead his own league once, craziest stat
In June of 1998 I went to Europe for my senior year trip with a bunch of other kids from my school. No smart phones, nobody had a laptop, it was hard to find American newspapers. Calls home were short and didn’t involve talking about sports. When we landed back in the US on July 2 someone bought a newspaper and it had a huge story on the front of the sports section about Sosa hitting 20 HR in June. All us sports fans were shocked by it. None of us had a clue that was happening while we were gone.
Yall didnt have TV channels or radio importing American sportscasting?
Also, laptop computers existed in 1998.
@@neonfroot Like I said, nobody in our group had a laptop with them. Even if someone did, the hostels we stayed at didn’t have free internet. And Internet cafes were few and far between. We spent most of the time in Germany watching soccer because they had almost no American sports on TV there. Only thing we watched was Game 6 of the NBA finals because we are from Iowa and loved the Chicago Bulls. So yeah, it was a different era.
I’m waiting for a video blaming Selig and the league offices, you know, the people who allowed the steroid use, turned a blind eye. Well, that’s until Barry Bonds started using them, then they all of a sudden took issue with it.
1998 was also another special year when Rookie Kerry Wood pitched a 20 strikeout game.
Sammy is a middle age white guy now .... My how things change
Bleaching his skin is the real reason he shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame.
Don’t Admit 💩 Sammy ! Tell them to kiss your Sammy Sosa Sass 😂👍🏼
It’s long been a rumor that Kerry Wood was the one who broke the boombox
No it was Wood .
Love your channel dude! I got into baseball more a couple years ago and kinda have just be watching it. It's been cool learning the modern day players and culture. But your channel has been really helpful by teaching the lore of the game. So next time somebody makes a reference to an older player I'm not like "huh?! who?!" My fav watch so far was the Doc Gooden's, the story of his no hitter brought a lil tear to my eye. 🥲
I've only known Kerry Wood to smash Sosa's boombox. I've never heard this incident refer to someone anonymous.
They did this man dirty in Chicago💯
Yep, and after all he did for them.
The no good city of Chicago and Cubs organization.
Once Sammy comes clean, I'd welcome him back. We all mess up. Hard to say many wouldn't do the same if given the opportunity. So can't really fault the guy too hard. But now after the fact..... Just come clean, work with the kids, and rebuild your legacy. It's all ready there. Just gotta put the pieces back together.
He sneezed and threw out his back. I knew a man who sneezed and he was paralyzed from the waist down. He was about 40 years old at the time.
I once knew a man from Nantucket...
How many takes did that ad read take
I was actually at the game where Sammy hit number 600.
it's funny the people that caused the steroid era haven't been fined,charged or identified, but the players have all been thrown under the bus.
Much like the Astros in 2017, and deservedly so.
@@LDQBBQ Oh man, it's not like there were plenty of other teams that did it better than Houston, although what the Astros did was not good. The funny fact was what the Astros did actually was ineffective and didn't really change anything.
@manzac112 if it was ineffective they wouldn't have done it.
Typical really. Likely Selig, the owners and the MLBPA were in on it. When you're talking people with that much power, influence and money its not surprising. Scapegoating is the name of the game.
Read … The Game of Shadows. Then…. You will understand.
Great video
You’ll need to ask Kerry Wood what happened to the boombox…. ❤on a side note a boombox doesn’t hold up against a bat. Who would’ve known. 😂
He was my favorite player when I was a kid. I hate everything that happened.
No, he definitely shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame. Nobody that gets exposed as a cheater should be in the Hall of Fame, otherwise you're essentially promoting cheating. Nor should any of their statistical records be upheld. In fact, they probably should have been required to forfeit the majority of their salary for the years they were known to be cheating. They didn't respect the sport, why should they be respected as players? They're a bunch of frauds and should absolutely be treated as such. When a student gets caught cheating on a final exam, they fail the test and (almost always) fail the class. The same standards should be applied to major league sports. There should be no exceptions made for cheating charlatans, period.
This is my new favorite video ❤
Sammy Sosa helped save baseball
such an interesting video. great job
thank you my friend:)
He used to be black too
That's the first thing that comes to my mind anytime I hear his name.
He’s pulling a Michael Jackson!!!!
I got into a heated argument with a friend because he believe that baseball execs didn’t know that players were juicing. I believed that there was no way in hell BB execs, managers, players, even concession workers didn’t know players were juicing. 😂
I grew up watching baseball in the 80's pre steroids and in middle school, we noticed the steroids. When Jose Canesco was in Oakland, we called him Jose Cansteroid. It was so obvious.
As a joke, I wrote a letter to the Commissioner, got the address out of Baseball Digest, and mocked them for not being able to figure out something that every kid in America knows.
Three years later, I actually received a reply out of the blue thanking me for taking time out to write and "your concerns are duly noted."
Everyone knew. And yes, Selig and the execs don't deserve Cooperstown for this, and neither do the players. Sosa and McGwire wouldn't have had to save baseball if the owners didn't cancel a season and a World Series, and how many kids did players affect in a negative way by encouraging such a shortcut?
They all cheated the game, the public, and themselves.
Sosa went the Micheal Jackson skin care route.
Still remember when I was at an Orioles Indians game way back in the day and everyone booed every time Sosa came up to bad and yelled “don’t use your practice bat” 😂😂😂
Threw my back out coughing. Missed a month of work. Had to get numbing injections in my spine. The doctors said the sneezing/coughing thing happens all the time and isn't rare, but extremely common.
#claydecoursey // Are you some kind of regular stupid....or BIG STUPID? BS
Need more lead up and highlights of Sammy’s progression from 94 up to 98
Everyone was on the juice, from the pitchers, batters, so it was even if you ask me
No they weren't
The average ERA in the league went up by nearly a full run during the steroid era, from 3.6 to 4.5. People should have figured out something was wrong when 20-game winners had ERAs above 4!
23:00 now you wanna cry after lying all of those years?
Sosa (1997): “Beisbol has been bery, bery gud to me.”
Sosa (Today):
“This is um,….like I say um,…this is umm,….not a question I espected from yous.”
Sosa’s Boombox:
………………….
(R.I.P. 🪦 Boombox 😢)
Sosa (at senate hearing): “No habla inglés.”
So odd seeing Astros in that NL Central standings
Everyone was juicing back then. The summer that Mac and Sosa dueled it out was simply electric. Saved baseball after the lockout. Then they became scapegoats. It's been over 20 years, time to let them bask in the lights for a little while before it's too late and we lose them for good. This goes for Pete too...enough is enough...unban the man for effs sake
The Cubs did him wrong. A-hole or not he sold A LOT of tickets for that club for a few years.
All of a sudden Sosa couldn't speak English. Coming from nothing, turning into a diva, turning into a cheater, turning into Granpa Munster. can't even come clean. NFHOF.
Sammy is and always will be my favorite player of all time. He’s the reason I’m a Cubs fan. He and Mark are why I am a fan of this game and nobody will ever take 1998 away from us.
As Sammy’s kindergarten baseball coach , that statement about the cubs coach being his most valuable , deeply offends me.
You wouldn’t even be able to swing a bat in the first place without me , Sammy .
LMFAO the dab is diabolical
Sammy Sosa belongs in the Hall of Fame.
Same PED evidence as David Ortiz...who got in first ballot.
pete rose first
A shoeless man has entered the chat
Not Pete at least while he’s alive it’s a ban for life. dude bet on games he was playing and managing;
If Sammy belongs in the Hall then Bonds better get there first
I heard it was Kerry Wood who smashed the Boom Box and no he should never be allowed back in Wrigley Field
The fact he can’t be honest about steroid use is pathetic. Literally the entire world knows
Same goes for Bonds and McGuire.
I'd just like to say that I also threw out my back while sneezing as well. I was down for like a week!
Scammin’ Sammy
Slammin
I will forever love Sammy because of the joy he brought to the city of Chicago and baseball. He was very likeable, unlike Bonds. He was a great player before the juice too. He could've easily had 40+ Hr seasons every year but wanted more.