Lone Star Ball: Morris: Debunking the Sammy Sosa, HOFer myth—Part 1

Can Sammy Sosa survive a test…uh…a Keltner Test that is.

Throughout this season, Sammy Sosa has been referred to as “future Hall of Famer Sammy Sosa.” 

To the extent that any doubts are expressed over his candidacy, they generally center around the doubts over the legitimacy of his numbers, the assumption that many people have that Sosa used steroids (or some sort of Performance Enhancing Drugs) during his career.  There seems to be no questioning, though, about whether his performance throughout his career is Hall of Fame caliber.  The question seems to be whether the numbers are tainted…because the numbers themselves, it seems to be assumed, are Hall of Fame caliber.

But in looking at Sosa’s career, I don’t think it is such an obvious slam-dunk that he’s a Hall of Famer.  I don’t mean in the sense of whether he’ll be elected or not…rather, I mean in the sense of whether he deserves to be elected, given his body of performance.

Regardless of the steroid cloud, I don’t think Sammy Sosa was a good enough player in his career to warrant enshrinement in the Hall of Fame.