Sosa Hits #600

He isn’t the player he once was, and he’ll always be remembered as a key figure during baseball’s steroid era, but the Rangers’ Sammy Sosa pounded his 600th career home run on Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs, the team that made him famous. The blast came at the expense of Jason Marquis in the fifth inning of the Rangers’ 7-3 victory and puts Sosa in rare company. Only four other men — Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays — have hit more homers in MLB history.

Sosa is only a marginally effective player these days — .242/.297/.458 is nothing special (I was going to say, especially in that ballpark, but the truth is, he’s doing much better on the road this year than at home) — but that’s more than he was for the Orioles in 2005 and certainly not what I expected from a 38-year-old who had sat out an entire season.

It’s a bittersweet thing to see Sosa reach this milestone. Many of us, myself included, have fond memories of watching him and Mark McGwire chase Roger Maris’ hallowed mark of 61 home runs back in ‘98. But in light of subsequent events that have cast a long shadow over baseball, it’s a little tough to celebrate what should be a remarkable achievement. That’s a real shame for all of us.