As a kid, I greatly admired Sammy Sosa. I sent him a letter telling him how much I liked him as a player and asked him for his autograph. I prided myself in the 118 baseball cards in my extensive baseball card collection that were of Sammy Sosa - including my two precious Sammy Sosa authentic bat cards. I searched and searched for his rookie card when he was with the Texas Rangers and treasured cards of him in his early days with the Chicago White Sox. He was my favorite player. Now, how am I supposed to respond when Slammin' Sammy Sosa was proven to have used steroids?

Sosa's major league debut was with the Texas Rangers on June 16, 1989. Funny that exactly 20 years later to the day, he was proven to have used banned substances. In his rookie season, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox. He only played with the White Sox for two years until he was traded to the Chicago Cubs. With the Cubs, he began to slowly break out when he hit 33 homers and stole 36 bases in '93. His previous season highs were 15 homers and 32 stolen bases both in 1990. Through the years, Sammy Sosa developed as a great athlete while on the Cubs, began to be a fan favorite, and a well-known player from the Dominican Republic paving his way towards the Hall of Fame.

Sosa is probably most known for his race with Mark Mcgwire for the record for the most home runs in a season in 1998. This race between McGwire and Sosa brought fans back to baseball that had been turned away by the large strike in 1994. McGwire and Sosa were both coming very close to breaking Roger Maris' season season home run record of 61 homers, and they were also competing with each other. Sosa was the first player to hit 65 home runs in a single season and he finished the season with 66 while McGwire beat him out with 70 home runs. In 1998, Sosa won the NL MVP Award and was a co-winner of the "Sportsman of the Year" award with Mark McGwire. Sosa began to be a great home run hitter as he hit 63 homers in '99, 50 in 2000, and 64 in '01. At the same time his stolen bases steadily dropped. (His yearly homerun and stolen base numbers are posted below).

In June 2003, in a game against Tampa Bay, Sosa broke his bat in the first inning and was ejected from the game when the umpires found the bat to be corked. Corking a bat is illegal because it gives the ball more pop when it leaves the bat making it easier to hit the ball longer distances. Sosa was suspended for 7 games and all of his 76 bats were analyzed for cork. None of his other bats had cork, and Sosa claimed that the corked bat was one that he only used in batting practice to entertain the fans but had accidentally grabbed it during the game against Tampa Bay. Many fans were unsure about this excuse, but I as a true fan believed it wholeheartedly. Now, what can true fans believe?

Slowly Sammy's numbers began to decline, and he suffered injuries such as a severe back injury at the end of the 2004 season. In 2005, the Cubs traded Sosa to the Baltimore Orioles. In his one season with the Orioles, Sosa played in 102 games and hit 14 homers mainly playing DH. No team signed him in 2006, and then in 2007 the Texas Rangers signed him. With the Rangers he played DH and sometimes right field. He hit his 600th home run on June 20, 2007 becoming only the fifth player in baseball history to hit that many homers along with Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Wille Mays, and Babe Ruth. This homerun was against the Cubs and also added Sosa as a player who hit a home run against every MLB team. For two years in 2008 and 2009, Sosa was not part of a team and was waiting to be signed. Then on June 3rd, 2009, Sosa announced that he planned to retire in the near future. Sosa said he looked forward to being inducted to the Hall of Fame, "I will calmly wait for my induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Don't I have the numbers to be inducted?" Now that Sosa has been proven to have used banned substances, I do not think that Sosa shold be allowed into the Hall of Fame. (I cover this issue extensively in my Steroids in Baseball hub).

Now, on June 16, 2009, Sammy Sosa was proven to have used steroids. In the same report that convicted Alex Rodriguez to have used performance-enhancing drugs, Sosa was named as one of the 104 players that tested positive in '03. Sosa had said before that he had never used illegal substances. The great player that many fans fell in love with - with his strong arm, monster home runs, aweing stats, trademark home run hop, and entertaining celebration of using two fingers to touch his lips and chest and point to the sky - has now been shown to have jumped on the bandwagon and cheated his way to fame. It is hard for me to still call myself a fan, and I do not think he should make it to the Hall.

Homeruns precede stolen bases

1989: 4(HR), 7(SB)

1990: 15, 32

1991: 10, 13

1992: 8, 15

1993: 33, 36

1994: 25, 22

1995: 36, 34

1996: 40, 18

1997: 36, 22

1998: 66, 18

1999: 63, 7

2000: 50, 7

2001: 64, 0

2002: 49, 2

2003: 40, 0

2004: 35, 0

2005: 14, 1

2007: 21, 0

Does Sosa's steady decrease in stolen bases point to the fact that he used steroids to get bigger and become more of a home run hitter?