Chicago Cubs: Sammy Sosa rose above Ken Griffey Jr.Vincent Pariseon June 15, 2020 at 11:00 am

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19 Aug 1998: First-baseman Mark McGwire #25 of the St.Louis Cardinals stands and talks to Sammy Sosa #21 of the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago,Illinois. The Cardinals defeated the Cubs 8-6.
19 Aug 1998: First-baseman Mark McGwire #25 of the St.Louis Cardinals stands and talks to Sammy Sosa #21 of the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago,Illinois. The Cardinals defeated the Cubs 8-6.

Chicago Cubs fans got to see Sammy Sosa dethrone Ken Griffey Jr for one season.

The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals were both featured in the ESPN 30 For 30 documentary called “Long Gone Summer” on Sunday night. It was a film that showcased the single-season home run chase between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire in 1998. It was a season that the two both broke the single-season record and chased each other for the new one. McGwire ended up with 70 and Sosa with 66.

The movie did seem to favor McGwire much more than Sosa. That might annoy some Cubs fans but one thing that was apparent was the story of Ken Griffey Jr.‘s 1998 season. It was thought that Jr. would go toe to toe with McGwire for that spot atop the single-season home run chase, but Sosa had other ideas. He had a 20 home run month in June of 98 and that inserted him into the conversation with Griffey and McGwire. Roger Marris’ single-season record was in jeopardy at the end of June.

Well, Griffey Jr. fell off just a little bit which really allowed it to become a three-horse race between Sosa and McGwire. The race reignited a lot of people’s love for baseball after the 1994 strike made a lot of people hate baseball. Well, Jr. wasn’t a big part of it that year but everybody knows that out of the three he was the best player and it wasn’t really close.

Jr. wasn’t a part of the big home run chase in 1998, but he did end that season with 56 home runs which led the American League. He was ten behind Sosa but he wasn’t much of a steroid guy like they were. He also was a first-ballot Hall of Famer and is considered one of the best players to ever play baseball.

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Griffey Jr. had a higher career WAR than them and his 630 career home runs rank higher all-time than both McGwire and Sosa. It was a fun race between the two and Griffey was taken out of it because of Sosa. In the end, all three were great baseball players and regardless of how you feel about them, they all had great statistics. With that said, Griffey Jr. would probably take his total career without the 1998 chase over either McGwire or Sosa’s career.

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