It's the 20th anniversary of the Summer of Sammy, when Sosa and Mark McGwire went toe-to-toe in one of the most exciting seasons in American sports history chasing after Roger Maris' home run record. All year, we're going to go homer-by-homer on Sosa's 66 longballs, with highlights and info about each. Enjoy.
Sosa went 8 days without a homer from June 30 to July 9, but it was a span of only 4 games, as the 1998 All-Star Break was thrown in there. But he came back for the second half on fire, hitting a homer in each of the first two games after the break.
His 35th blast came off Milwaukee's Scott Karl in the second inning on July 10th, a solo shot that was measured at 428 feet. But for the second straight day, it didn't matter as the Cubs still lost to the Brewers.
Fun fact: Sosa hit exactly 33 homers in each half of the 1998 season. Interestingly enough, he only had 5 doubles vs. those 33 dingers in the second half of the season (he had 15 doubles in the first half).
Here's Sosa's 1998 splits:
First half (83 G): .324/.384/.667 (1.051 OPS), 33 HR, 81 RBI, 67 R
Second half (76 G): .290/.369/.626 (.994 OPS), 33 HR, 77 RBI, 67 R