Sosa’s Retreat Better Than Return

By the end of his 17th season, Sammy Sosa could not trust his eyes or his hands anymore.

So, on his way to life as a civilian, he stopped off in the back right corner of the batter’s box, the last place to hide a slow bat and a racing heart.

He looked less like he was trying to hit a fastball than throw a tarp over it, hold it down and plead for kindness.

And then he left.

These things happen. Few choose retirement. There’s Ted Williams. Roger Clemens, so far. A handful of others. Otherwise, retirement does the choosing. Ballplayers talk about it, save for it, get their heads wrapped around it and are utterly blindsided when the slider-speed fastball beats them three times in the same at-bat.

As Sosa’s agent, Adam Katz, said Thursday afternoon, “Great athletes, these things don’t process very well.”

Sosa, he said, excluded.

“I admire him. I view this as a dignified thing.”

It also was rather unexpected, given Sosa’s proximity to 600 home runs, his negotiations with the Washington Nationals and the assumption he would view last season -- 14 home runs, .221 batting average, the first persistent boos of his career -- as a product of injury and bad luck. Indeed, even after Wednesday’s admission from representatives that he would, probably, retire, Sosa heard again from the Nationals, according to a source.

Sometimes, though, all signs point to retreat.

Already into spring training, Jim Bowden was the only general manager with enough courage and curiosity to call with any consistency, and the Nationals don’t appear destined for the playoffs. Proud to be within a basepath’s width of obstinacy, Sosa had served his time with a loser, failed in his shot at career revival and been splattered by his game’s sudden fascination with steroids, all in one season in Baltimore.

It was miserable, and so was he, and in recent weeks he could find no one who would talk him into playing another season for the sake of playing another season, even if it was to hit 12 more home runs.

“If it was about 600, he would have played,” Katz said. “If it was about money, we would have negotiated and battled. Personally, it was difficult for Sammy to play beneath his expectations.”

Frankly, it would have been worse to play beneath his public’s expectations, living with the daily examinations of his game, the comparisons with what it once was and the conclusions drawn from that. In Washington, at 37, he instantly would have been the face of the organization, just as he was in Baltimore last summer, when one day he went home to Miami and just didn’t come back.

“Sammy absolutely knows he is not the player he used to be,” said Eric Karros, Sosa’s teammate for a season in Chicago and a friend still. “He knows he can’t play 162 games. He knows he is not a 40- or 50-home run guy. It’s not as if he has unrealistic expectations. He doesn’t want to be hanging around for the sake of hanging around.

“I believe he’s had a Hall of Fame career. He doesn’t have anything to prove in the game. The opportunities that have presented themselves [in Washington], if I was in his shoes, I would do the same thing.”

Assuming he stays with this plan and spends the next five years raising children and seeing Paris, one of his favorite places, Sosa has only one baseball issue ahead.

A colleague asked Thursday if I would put Sosa in the Hall of Fame.

My reply: “At the moment, I have him in the category of McGwire, Palmeiro and Bonds. I feel like I need more information, knowing that it might never come. In Sosa’s case, in particular, draw a horizontal line halfway through his career, and it’s as though the top and bottom portions were played by different guys. If I had to vote today or forever hold my peace, I’d stall.”

Sosa hit 207 home runs from 1989 to 1997, and 381 from 1998 to 2005. He stole 199 bases in his first nine seasons, 35 in the next eight. Maybe that’s what happens with age and experience and a very friendly ballpark, assuming for the moment the bat broke the only time he corked it.

He didn’t puddle up in front of Congress, as Mark McGwire did. He didn’t test for steroids, as Rafael Palmeiro did. He didn’t raise his right hand before a grand jury, as Barry Bonds did.

But neither was he untouched by the circumstantial evidence of a seamy, ambiguous era.

Compared with that corner, the back of the batter’s box will seem quite safe.

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All-time homer list

The top home run hitters of all time and their number of official at-bats (* -- active through 2005):

*--* PLAYER HR-AB 1. Hank Aaron 755 (12,364) 2. Babe Ruth 714 (8,399) 3. Barry Bonds * 708 (9,140) 4. Willie Mays 660 (10,881) 5. Sammy Sosa * 588 (8,401) 6. Frank Robinson 586 (10,006) 7. Mark McGwire 583 (6,187) 8. Harmon Killebrew 573 (8,147) 9. Rafael Palmeiro * 569 (10,472) 10. Reggie Jackson 563 (9,864) 11. Mike Schmidt 548 (8,352) 12. (tie) Ken Griffey Jr. * 536 (7,870) Mickey Mantle 536 (8,352) 14. Jimmie Foxx 534 (8,134) 15. (tie) Willie McCovey 521 (8,197) Ted Williams 521 (7,706) 17. (tie) Ernie Banks 512 (9,421) Eddie Mathews 512 (8,537) 19. Mel Ott 511 (9,456) 20. Eddie Murray 504 (11,336) 21. (tie) Lou Gehrig 493 (8,001) Fred McGriff 493 (8,757) 23. (tie) Stan Musial 475 (10,972) Willie Stargell 475 (7,927) 25. Dave Winfield 465 (11,003)

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Sosa stats

Outfielder Sammy Sosa ranks fifth on the career home run list with 588 but batted .221 with 14 homers and 45 RBIs last year:

*--* TEAM, YEAR AB R H 2B HR RBI SB AVE. Texas, 1989 84 8 20 3 1 3 0 238 Chicago (AL), 1989 99 19 27 5 3 10 7 273 Chicago (AL), 1990 532 72 124 26 15 70 32 233 Chicago (AL), 1991 316 39 64 10 10 33 13 203 Chicago (NL), 1992 262 41 68 7 8 25 15 260 Chicago (NL), 1993 598 92 156 25 33 93 36 261 Chicago (NL), 1994 426 59 128 17 25 70 22 300 Chicago (NL), 1995 564 89 151 17 36 119 34 268 Chicago (NL), 1996 498 84 136 21 40 100 18 273 Chicago (NL), 1997 642 90 161 31 36 119 22 251 Chicago (NL), 1998 643 134 198 20 66 158 18 308 Chicago (NL), 1999 625 114 180 24 63 141 7 288 Chicago (NL), 2000 604 106 193 38 50 138 7 320 Chicago (NL), 2001 577 146 189 34 64 160 0 328 Chicago (NL), 2002 556 122 160 19 49 108 2 288 Chicago (NL), 2003 517 99 144 22 40 103 0 279 Chicago (NL), 2004 478 69 121 21 35 80 0 253 Baltimore, 2005 380 39 84 15 14 45 1 221 Totals 8401 1422 2304 355 588 1575 234 274

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