The DRSEA INFORMER – Volume II, Issue 13 reports:
So Long Sammy – In a move that was hardly surprising, potential Hall of Famer Sammy Sosa has announced he will officially retire from baseball. Sosa, who has been out of baseball for more than a year, retires as one of Major League Baseball’s greatest power hitters and a key component of baseball’s resurgence after the 1994 baseball strike that threatened to undermine the national pastime. Sosa joined with slugger Mark McGwire in the 1998 season to go on what was known as “The Chase,” or the epic race to break Roger Maris’s season record of 61 home runs.
Sosa hit 66 that season to McGwire’s 70, but the chase pressed the Dominican player into the hearts and minds of many Americans and was credited with restoring America’s faith and love in baseball again. But Sosa’s success at the plate ran into controversy when he was linked to the use of performance enhancing substances. Though no proof has ever been found, Sosa’s career in the “steroid era” has cast a pall on his career.
While his enshrinement in Cooperstown may be up in the air, Sosa said, “I will calmly wait for my induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Don’t I have the numbers to be inducted? Everything I achieved, I did it thanks to my perseverance, which is why I never had any long, difficult moments (as a baseball player). If you have a bad day in baseball, and start thinking about it, you will have 10 more.”
Sosa is the sixth player in Major League Baseball history to achieve 609 home runs, 24th in RBIs with 1,667, 42nd in slugging percentage with .534 and second all time with 2,306 strikeouts.
The basic mission of the Dominican Republic Sports & Education Academy (DRSEA) is to provide young, gifted Dominican student athletes the opportunity to become well-rounded individuals. While providing student athletes with the opportunity to hone their natural athletic talents amongst some of the world’s best young athletes, the Academy will also prepare them to excel in life, outside the lines and off the playing fields.
[A] foundation with the intent to eliminate steroids and other illegal performance enhancing drugs from the world of sports. Our mission is to bring together the best minds and most influential problem solvers to focus on practical, effective measures that can be taken to get all young people between 5th and 12th grade to make the pledge to not cheat in sports, in the classroom or in life.
