Sosa and Bonds Can Still Impress

Last week Sammy Sosa became the fifth played in baseball history to hit 600 homeruns; Barry Bonds is less than 10 homeruns from breaking the most prestigious record in all of sports. In the last decade, their images have been tainted by juice and corked bats. Many have lost respect for Bonds and had barely a shred of respect left for Sosa—until Wednesday. Hearing the Rangers’ announcer call the homerun with stroke-inducing excitement gave me goose bumps that were beyond my control. At that moment, a quote from the movie Fever Pitch came to mind: “You can have a lucky season, but you can’t have a lucky career.”

An impressive handful of players have hit 500+ homeruns, but get to number 586 and the number drops significantly to an awe-inspiring five players (which will grow over these next years). So a small part of me admits—hesitantly—that to hit the ball so hard for so long cannot be summed up by steroids or other elements. These two record-chasing men may have used outside help along the way, which should not be condoned, but there is still a great deal of real talent and commitment buried in their numbers.