Samuel Peralta Sosa was born on November 12, 1968, in San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic — the city that would produce more Major League shortstops per capita than anywhere on earth, though Sosa would find his destiny not in the infield but in right field at Wrigley Field. After being traded to the Cubs in 1992, he spent years as an exciting but inconsistent outfielder before unleashing one of the most extraordinary power-hitting transformations in baseball history. By 1998, Sammy Sosa was the most famous baseball player on earth.
The summer of 1998 — the Great Home Run Chase between Sosa and Mark McGwire — is credited by baseball historians with rescuing the sport after the devastating 1994 players' strike had driven away millions of fans. Sosa hit 66 home runs, finishing second to McGwire's 70, but winning the race in the hearts of most observers with his effervescent joy, his thumb-kissing home-run trot, and his genuine celebration of McGwire's record. He won the 1998 NL MVP award despite not leading the league in home runs — because no player that year had done more to bring baseball back to life. In San Pedro de Macorís, his hometown, he became more than a baseball hero; he became a civic institution.
Sosa's connection to Dominican baseball ran deep: he was a LIDOM participant, appearing with Leones del Escogido in off-seasons and maintaining his relationship with the country that had shaped him. His 1998 season transformed the Dominican Republic's visibility in the American sports market, making clear to every team executive that San Pedro de Macorís and Santo Domingo were not merely sources of athletic talent but of genuine, marketable superstardom. The generation of Dominican players who followed Sosa — including David Ortiz and Albert Pujols — benefited from the doors his fame had opened.
Sammy Sosa hit 20 home runs in the month of June 1998 alone — a single-month record that has never been broken. For those who watched it happen in real time, Sosa in June 1998 felt like watching physics being defied: the ball left Wrigley Field with a sound unlike any home run ever hit there. When he emerged from the dugout for curtain calls, tapping his chest and pointing to the sky, an entire Dominican nation felt the electricity from 1,500 miles away. Baseball had found its summer savior, and he was from San Pedro de Macorís.
Position: Right Fielder · Country: Dominican Republic · Born: San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic · Career: 1989 – 2007 · Main club: Chicago Cubs · Career Home Runs: 609 · NL MVP: 1998 · All-Star Selections: 6 · 60+ HR Seasons: 3 (1998, 1999, 2001)