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SELIG "SENSITIVE" TO MLB'S TREATMENT OF SLAMMIN' SAMMY

          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).  
          

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