Hall of Fame Poll: Sammy Sosa

You know the Sammy Sosa story. Early in his career, he wasn't a great player, he chased too many pitchers, didn't take walks. Then suddenly he started hitting home runs by the dozen. He and Mark McGwire had a great battle to be the one to beat out Roger Maris for the home run record. They were credited with saving the MLB after 2 strike/lockout shortened seasons.

This is his four time on the ballot. He was on 12.5% of the ballots the first time, then 7.2%, then 6.6% last year. I think he's likely to be on less than 5% of the ballots this year and that would mean he would be on next year's ballot.

He hit .273/.344/.534 with 609 home runs (8th all time), 1667 RBI (28th all time), in 2354 games over 18 seasons. He was an All-Star 7 times, MVP once, and came in 2nd once, and won the Silver Slugger 6 times. He had a career 58.4 bWAR.

I'll admit I was never a fan. Mark McGwire had a value before the PEDs, but Sammy didn't have much value outside of the home runs. And he's been a bit of a jerk about it all, or at least comes off as one in interviews.

I'm not one that believes players shouldn't be allowed in the Hall if they used, but, in Sosa's case, I don't think he would have come anywhere near Hall of Fame numbers without the drugs. He was also caught with a corked bat.