There are so many questions surrounding the timing of this NY Times report that was posted today regarding former slugger Sammy Sosa testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. Why does this all of a sudden come out now? Why would “lawyers with knowledge of the results” start singing six years later? Why does anyone care?
Sosa has retired from the game and ranks sixth all time in home runs. Sosa just spoke with ESPN Deportes earlier this Spring, after announcing his retirement, and said he would wait for his induction to the Hall of Fame in 2013. With this coming out now, not only will Sosa likely not enter the Hall, like Mark McGuire, but he also may face some legal troubles.
Sosa went before Congress four years ago and said he never took any performance enhancing drugs. The test, as reported by the Times, is from two years prior. Regardless of your take on the issue of steroids in baseball, without the great home run chase of nearly a decade ago, baseball would be dead. McGuire and Sosa brought people back to the game, and though we later found out it was done using enhancers, many major media outlets, baseball executives, and team presidents made quite a bit of money riding the wave.
