Sammy Sosa is now the fifth member of the famous 600-homer club, after finally reaching this wonderful milestone during last Wednesdays game against the Chicago Clubs. 

Although last year spending time in his native Dominican Republic with no place to play, Sammy knew in his heart that he was too close to such an accolade not to come back into the world of baseball, and leave his mark. 

He was given the chance back by his original team the Texas Rangers. So the question on everybody’s lips is “How many more can he hit?” “Definitely I thinks it’s going to be more easy now” Sosa has said, not giving any secrets away about specific goals, he continued “I don’t have to go out there and try to hit two home runs in one at bat”.  He does want to continue after reaching the 600 milestone.“Now I can go out there and stick with the same game plan that I have and focus”. 

Number 600 was only the second homer in 222 games for Sosa, who has not been in the lineups at all for the finals against the Cubs on Thursday afternoon which coincidentally was the 18^th anniversary of his first career homerun for the Rangers off Roger Clemens at Fenway Park in Boston. 

“A lot of people doubted me, they thought I would probably be back home (Dominican Republic) by now,” Sosa said .  “I’ve got to continue to put up numbers, play good and see what happens when my career ends.” 

Now at 38years and 220 days old, Sosa was older than Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays when they all hit their 600^th homers, but only Ruth’s 2,044 games to reach the mark were fewer than Sosa’s 2,302. 

Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee who is one of Sosa’s former teammates said “As long as he’s productive, he can keep on playing, he’s not the Sammy Sosa of 10 years ago, six, eight years ago but he’s productive.  He’s go the homers and the RBI’s.  Any team would take that.  If he can do that, he can play, simple as that.” 

How many homers he can hit in the future obviously depends on how long he gets to play.  Just after Sosa’s one year out of the game, general manager Jon Daniels signed him to a one-year minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training. 

Sosa said with a smile and glance towards Daniels “It just depends on JD, how many years he’s going to sign me, definitely, Texas is the teams that gave me the opportunity. I fit perfect here, I’m happy here. On top of that, I’m doing my job.” 

While Sosa is hitting only .242 in his 62 games, he started Thursday seventh in the American League with 53 runs batted in-already 8 more than he had in the total of 102 games for Baltimore in the 2005 season. 

Jerry Hairston whose locker is by Sosa’s in the Texas Rangers Clubhouse said “I think that year off kind of allowed him to clear his head, you really realize how great a player he still is and why he was so great in his heyday, His mind is so strong.” 

Rangers shortstop Michael Young said “Look at the incredible season he had in ’98, followed by a few more, this is just a culmination of tons of great seasons.  Sammy came back and has had a really, really great first half.  I don’t see any reason why he’s stop now.” 

Texas signed Sosa way back when he was just 16 years old and a free agent in 1985, he was still a lanky kid when he hit his first homer. Sosa only played 25 games for Texas and in 1989 was traded to the Chicago White Sox and then later to the Cubs. 

Like fellow star of baseball McGwire and Bonds, Sosa too has been dogged by allegations of steroid use.  Sosa was also caught using a corked bat in front of his home crowd when he played for the Cubs in 2003. Following up though, Sosa has never been penalized for a positive steroid test. 

Before this week, Sosa has never faced the Cubs, now he has homered against every major league team in a record 45 stadiums. The Texas Rangers have used Sosa as their designated hitter for a total of 43 of his 59 starts. Ron Washington Manager has made sure to give him breaks, taking advantage of last Thursdays day game with the tremendous milestone out of the way. 

Cubs Manager Lou Piniella had this to say “It gets rougher and rougher, it really does.  It’s not easy,. The DH is a big help.  It’s like a 70 year old guy pulling his golf clubs behind him on an uphill course, he’s feeling it after the round”. 

But our wonderful Sammy is going back out for more…Well done Sammy!