Don't Cry For Sammy

It’

s been a tough year to be Sammy Sosa. The ebullient home run king has hit only six balls out of the park this year. His right big toe swelled up to twice the size of his left toe, and he had to endure a painful removal of the nail. In April, a pitch by the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Salomon Torres shattered Sosa's batting helmet with Sammy still in it.

And then there was that thing about the corked bat. Following last Tuesday's discovery that Sosa was using an illegal bat in a game against Tampa Bay, the denunciations extended all the way to his home country of the Dominican Republic.  "We can't forgive him. He smears all Dominicans with what he did," 16-year-old Rolfi Lajana Santana, of Sosa's hometown of San Pedro de Macoris, told the Orlando Sentinel.  Ouch.  Sosa says the whole thing was an accident, that he used a practice bat in a game. Seattle Mariners third baseman Jeff Cirillo (who, it must be said, has so far this season hit so poorly that nobody would accuse him of corking) claimed that this was no accident, and he was not alone.  Major League Baseball didn't spend much time debating the question of accident-or-not; it slapped Sosa with an eight-game suspension.

But don't write off the Cubs slugger just yet.  Americans love sports heroes, and in this case, Sosa's cult of personality will bring him back to baseball icon status in no time. Few players are so openly enthusiastic about the game as Sosa.  In terms of popularity, he’s on par with baseball's greatest Latin hero, Roberto Clemente, and in fact may be even more popular than Clemente was in his heyday.  His friendly spirit, community activism (he lends his name to everything from health clinics in the Dominican Republic to hurricane relief) and athletic abilities are an island of hope to otherwise cynical fans fed a steady diet of Ray Lewises and Albert Belles.  Fans are desperate to hang on to a pristine hero.  When they find someone like Sosa, who frequently repays their affections, they may be devastated at a transgression but are quick to forgive.

Sosa has run into controversy before.  Last season, during the uproar over steroids in baseball, Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly got a big reaction out of Sosa when he suggested to Sosa that the player should be tested for steroids to dispel any rumors of drug use.  Sosa reportedly called Reilly a “motherf___er” and stormed off.  Some would expect a large controversy over the incident, yet the steroid issue hasn’t dogged Sosa, despite being more of a serious issue than his use of a corked bat (which, on a physics side note, can actually be detrimental to a hitter’s power). 

"There's tainting going on in almost everybody's career and life before it's over with," Cubs manager Dusty Baker told the Chicago Tribune. "I was looking at TV today, and Martha Stewart is tainted. I've been tainted. You name me someone great who hasn't been tainted. And if you find that person, then you'll probably have a saint. If there are saints walking around, I'd definitely like to meet that saint, because I need some cleansing myself."

But even after Tuesday’s debacle, fans during the Cubs’ home game Wednesday cheered Sosa and held up signs reading “Still Lovin’ Sammy”.  Accident or not, this incident isn’t going to alter the relationship between Sammy Sosa and his fans.  Cubs loyalists will soon be back to bemoaning their real obsession: the lack of a World Series win since 1908.