Sammy Sosa is all set to make his comeback in baseball and along with it he is still answering questions about steroids. These are the same questions that Sosa was answering a year ago when he stopped playing baseball.
Sosa said that he wanted to make a comeback in baseball in 2006 but could not because he was mentally exhausted with the steroid controversy. However, after a year off, he is fresh and relaxed, and geared up to play and perform.
Sosa has just signed a minor league contract with Texas Rangers. This will be his first attempt at major league since 2005 when he was playing for Baltimore. During that time he hit .221 and scored 14 home runs in 102 games.
If Sosa makes it the Rangers’ roster at the end of spring training, he will end up signing a one year contract worth $500,000. He would be liable to earn another $2.1 million in performance bonuses. Jon Daniels, Rangers’ general manager, says that Sosa has to earn his spot in the team and should Sosa make it, he would be the designated hitter though he could still play in the outfield.
Sosa is 38 years old and he thinks that he still has five years more of good baseball left in him. He is fifth on the careers list with 588 home runs.
Sosa was one of the several players who testified before a congressional committee that was looking into steroid use in professional baseball. Sosa was suspected of having taken performance enhancing drugs and he was banned from baseball after the 2002 season.
However, Sosa insists that there was never any evidence of him having taken steroids and everything was just speculation.
In 1998, Sosa was the NL MVP and he batted .308 with 66 home runs and 158 RBIs. Sosa has batted .274 with 1,575 RBIs and has hit 60 home runs or more in a year three times in his career.
Texas Rangers was the first team that signed Sosa when he was 16 years old in 1985. In 1989, Sosa hit his first home run while he was with the Rangers and this was his only home run in 25 games after which he was traded to the White Sox.
Sosa said that he has offers from other teams but he wanted to end his baseball career with the same team he started out with.