MLB Commissioner Bud Selig responded to media criticism
that MLB failed to properly celebrate Sammy Sosa following
his 62nd HR and also explained his absence from Sunday's
Cubs game. Selig told Van Dyck & Ginnetti of the CHICAGO
SUN-TIMES: "I am very sensitive to the situation. ... I had
already told Sammy that he was so great for baseball, his
personality, the way he handled himself. ... You have to
understand that McGwire was the first guy to break it."
Selig said that MLB "had forewarned teams that it would be
present only for the first player" to break Roger Maris'
single-season HR record. Selig and NL President Leonard
Coleman "plan to attend" Sunday's Sammy Sosa Day at Wrigley
Field. While Selig "would not confirm it," sources also
said that Sosa will be presented with the second
Commissioner's Historic Award -- the first having been
presented to McGwire after his 62nd HR (SUN-TIMES, 9/15).
MLB Dir of PR Rich Levin: "Sosa's achievement was
remarkable, as remarkable as McGwire's, but McGwire was the
guy who first broke Maris' record. Who knows what will
happen the rest of the way? ... It's sort of like a work in
progress. As far as the rest of the season, I don't know if
there's anything (extraordinary) that we're going to do for
either of them." Levin, on not marking Sosa's HR balls for
authentication: "It wasn't an oversight. From the very
beginning, it was our goal to authenticate the ball that
broke Maris' record, and hopefully, the one that ends up
being this season's record" (DETROIT NEWS, 9/15). In N.Y.,
Lisa Olsen writes that Sosa "didn't seem to mind the
perception that he was but an afterthought to the chase,
with [MLB] treating his 62nd home run ... as if it were just
another dinger on just another day" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 9/15).
ADD THIS HONOR FOR SAMMY: MLB took out a full-page ad
in USA TODAY signed by Selig which reads, "Major League
Baseball and fans all over the world congratulate Sammy Sosa
for hitting his 62nd home run on September 13, 1998 and
tying the single season home run record" (THE DAILY).
IS IT ENOUGH? In N.Y., Ed Guzman writes that the
attention given to Sosa "is clearly a step down from the
magical scene in St. Louis last Tuesday" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/15).
In Toronto, Garth Woolsey writes under the header "Selig &
Co. Fumble the Ball Over Sosa Mark." Woolsey: "Is Sosa
getting second-class treatment in this historic pursuit?"
(TORONTO STAR, 9/15). On "SportsCenter," ESPN's Dan
Patrick: "If Mark McGwire is baseball's version of Neil
Armstrong, then does that make Sammy Sosa Buzz Aldrin?"
(ESPN, 9/14). In Boston, Michael Holley: "If Selig was
going to be in St. Louis, he should have been in Chicago,
too." Holley adds that "several angry callers wanted to
know why" the Boston Globe gave McGwire "pages to himself as
well as his own special section while Sosa got a comparative
slap on the back. Many said that what they perceived to be
a slight was racist and that they were canceling their
subscriptions" (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/15). On Long Island, Joe
Gergen writes under the header "Selig Showing a Lack of
Class" (NEWSDAY, 9/15). The N.Y. POST back page reads:
"Shame On Baseball." The POST's Wallace Matthews writes
that MLB reacted to Sosa's 62nd HR "with an astounding,
utterly disrespectful yawn, stretching from coast-to-coast."
But Jack Newfield writes Sosa "has earned equal treatment
with McGwire, in terms of celebration and recognition" (N.Y.
POST, 9/15). Sosa was featured in the final story on ABC's
"World News Tonight" as Peter Jennings said, "There is more
history to be made" (ABC, 9/14). And in the N.Y. TIMES,
Bill Dedman profiles Sosa in above-the-fold-piece headlining
the sports section under the header, "The Man Who Would Be
McGwire." The story is accompanied by a photo of Sosa, his
wife and three of their four children (N.Y. TIMES, 9/15).
HOME RUN RACE? Richard Lapchick, Dir of Northeastern
Univ.'s Center for the Study of Sport in Society: "White
America was looking for a white sports hero, and Mark
McGwire was that person. We had a national hero; we just
didn't notice there were two" (USA TODAY, 9/15). But in
Philadelphia, John Smallwood writes the lack of McGwire-like
recognition is a result of Sosa being "an unfortunate victim
of bad timing, not of bias" (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 9/15).
MLB STILL IN THE NEWS: A WASHINGTON POST editorial
calls McGwire and Sosa "two of the most appealing people in
sports" (WASHINGTON POST, 9/15). In Miami, Linda Robertson
writes Sosa and McGwire come "to the rescue" of parents who
"have been hesitant to use ear-biting and wife-beating
athletes as role models" (MIAMI HERALD, 9/15). The
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER writes the HR chase "lifts us higher
and higher, as we root for it to never end" (INQUIRER,
9/15). USA TODAY sports cover story header: "Sosa, McGwire
Stand Tall When Nation Needs Them" (USA TODAY, 9/15).