A lonely 600: Why no one cares about Sammy Sosa

Gay or not gay?

If Sammy Sosa hits his 600th home run, does it make a sound?

Over the weekend, Sosa hit his 599th home run in Cincinnati (against whom he's hit 53 homers, the most for any opponent) and any day, any at-bat, he'll knock No. 600 out and become part of history whether baseball purists -- or the league for that matter -- like it or not. We're talking Aaron, Bonds, Ruth, Mays and ... Sosa. The guy the Rangers traded to the White Sox for Harold Baines. He already has more home runs than Harmon Killebrew, Mickey Mantle, Frank Robinson, Mel Ott and Jimmie Foxx. If an alien flew their UFO to Earth and asked who the greats of baseball were, merely looking at home run totals, Sosa would be one of the top six mentioned.

Whereas, America looks upon Barry Bonds with disdain and hate, they look (or don't) at Sosa with disinterest. And it's really hard to understand why.

Six hundred home runs still means something. Only the best of the best have done it. It's a standard that still means something unlike, say, 500 homers or 2,000 hits. It's elite company.


Is it the steroid speculation? Surely, he was popping something -- illegal, banned or otherwise -- during his career. But at least Bonds was acknowledged despite the fact that most people can't stand the guy. Of course, maybe disinterest is the only alternative to being hated and American can't bring themselves to hate Sosa because he always has this "aw-shucks, I'm just happy to be here" attitude and goofy grin on his face despite the fact that he refers to himself in the third-person frequently.

ESPN is giving Sosa a front-page headline as he inches closer. They also had a Hispanic writer do a puff piece about how he's trying to rehabilitate his image ... with teammates (mostly by legging out triples in spring training).

Ironically, Jerry Hairston Jr. was the only Ranger quoted and Sosa is said to have befriended utility infielder Matt Kata who's not even with the team anymore.

Otherwise, it's all quiet on the American front. No pro-con articles as to whether Sosa's homer mark means any thing, or whether he's a Hall of Famer. It's not scary that everyone is supporting a guy who probably cheated, but that they're ignoring him. A guy on the verge of a huge milestone. Even if everyone discredits Sosa's homers, why isn't anyone talking or writing about it. Where's the outrage or the support?

The answer, however, has already been revealed. It would interesting to see how people treat Bonds' records if he was a nice, humble guy. Let's say the steroid circumstances were the same as were his home run marks, but Bonds was an amicable guy, who played with the abandon and love of Ken Griffey Jr. and the humble and somewhat naive nature of Sosa, what would his image be like?

I would suggest Bonds would be more of a hero. Why is it necessarily out of the question that Griffey Jr. didn't do steroids? Granted, there's a ton more evidence and scuttlebutt that proves that Bonds did use and Griffey Jr. is never associated with this information, but, nonetheless, neither has been caught, charged or formally accused of anything.

But Griffey Jr. represents everything good about the sport, Bonds everything bad.

And you have to imagine it's because Griffey Jr. hasn't A) quadrupled in size over the last 20 years; and B) maintained a cocky attitude despite being reared in a baseball family with the skill and means to achieve being given to him at birth.

Sosa's somewhere in between and that mean's one thing: apathy. Sosa's as much wrapped up in the steroid's imbroglio (and he corked his bat for crying out loud!), but he's a nice guy who counts his blessings, so let's cut him some slack.

All I know is that Sosa will join elite company any day now and we're happy to give him some benefit of doubt through silence. And I doubt he minds at this point.