Sammy Sosa had quite a month in June 1998. And hardly anybody saw it coming. Except maybe Sammy.
“In '96, '97 I was coming up with some great years,” Sosa told NBC Sports Chicago’s David Kaplan in 2018. “And I know [1998] is going to be the year I’m going to explode.”
In 1996, Sosa hit his 40th home run on Aug. 19, but he broke his wrist the next day and missed the remainder of the season. In 1997, he played in all 162 games, finishing with 36 homers and 119 RBIs.
During the first two months of the '98 season, Sosa was hitting for average but not putting many balls over the fence. At the end of April, he was batting .343 with six homers and 17 RBIs. In May, he hit .344 with seven homers and 22 RBIs.
But then something clicked.
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“I was the type of player that when I get hot I could hit 10 in 2-3 days, because I already had my plan," he said. "The head down. It’s been working for so long, and finally I got it in control.”
MLB
A big assist goes to Cubs hitting coach Jeff Pentland, who showed Sosa tape of Braves third baseman Chipper Jones at the plate. Sosa worked on tapping his left toe as the pitch was being delivered, which he says allowed him to keep his hands back and see the ball longer and make better contact.
And all that work finally paid off as the calendar turned to June.
On June 1, Sosa homered twice against the Marlins. He homered in five straight games from June 3-8 (the Cubs had an off day on June 4). After hitting just one home run in his next five games, Sosa hit three solo blasts on June 15 against the Brewers at Wrigley Field, giving him 11 at the halfway point of the month.
Sosa hit two homers on both June 19 and 20 against the Phillies; he then hit homer No. 30 of the season the following day, giving him nine in an 11-game stretch.
He hit his 18th homer of the month on June 24 at Detroit, tying the record for most in a single month set by the Tigers' Rudy York in 1937. He broke the record the next day.
Sosa went without a homer in a three-game series at Kansas City and the Cubs returned to Wrigley on the final day of the June. In the bottom of the eighth, he belted one into the left field bleachers, his 20th and final home run of the month.
With that performance, Sosa was now in the middle of the race to break Roger Maris' home run record (61), which was previously a two-man battle between Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey Jr. Through May, Sosa was six homers behind Griffey and 14 behind McGwire. A month later, he was tied with Griffey and four behind Big Mac.
Junior’s output slowed over the final three months of the season, and McGwire beat Sosa to Maris’ single-season record. But for 30 days in 1998, there was no better home run hitter on the planet.
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