Another blast for Sammy!
Sosa wins National League MVP over McGwire
Posted: Wednesday December 02, 1998 03:39 PM
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Slammin' Sammy: Sosa hit .308 with 66 homers and a major league-leading 158 RBIs Jonathan Daniel/Allsport |
NEW YORK (AP) -- Sammy Sosa
insisted all along that Mark McGwire
should be the National League's Most Valuable Player. No one outside St.
Louis agreed with him.
After losing to McGwire in the race for the home run record, Sosa
overwhelmed his friendly rival Thursday, getting 30 of 32 first-place votes
and 438 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of
America.
McGwire, who hit 70 homers to Sosa's 66, got the other two first-place
votes and 272 points. Two sports writers for the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch voted for McGwire and had Sosa second.
"I would have voted for Mark," Sosa said in Chicago. "In my heart, Mark
McGwire is still the man."
McGwire, on vacation in Australia, praised his rival but didn't say how
he would have voted.
"To put it in his words, today Sammy is the man," McGwire said in a
statement issued by the Cardinals. "He did a great job carrying the Cubbies
back to the playoffs."
As they approached Roger Maris' old home run record of 61, Sosa and
McGwire became friends. Sosa repeatedly predicted McGwire would get to the
record first and often said it was McGwire's year.
Standard bearer: McGwire set a mark for the ages with his 70 home run season that helped revitalize baseball Vincent Laforet/Allsport | |
"It's hard to hit 70 home runs and not win MVP," Sosa said. "I was never
so sure to myself that I had it until today."
But the baseball writers put a premium on playing for a winning team, and
Sosa led the Chicago
Cubs into the playoffs for the first time since 1989. The Cardinals
stumbled to a third-place finish in the NL Central, 19 games behind Houston
and seven behind the wild-card Cubs.
Sosa hit .308 and led the majors with 158 RBIs, 132 runs and 414 total
bases.
McGwire finished with 147 RBIs and a .299 average, leading the majors in
walks (162), slugging percentage (.752) and on-base percentage (.470).
Sosa's win made the MVP awards a sweep for Latin American players. Texas'
Juan
Gonzalez -- a former teammate of Sosa's in the Rangers' minor-league
system and a native of Puerto Rico -- won the AL MVP on Wednesday.
Everyone back in Sosa's homeland in the Dominican Republic expected him
to win. He joined George Bell (1987) as the only Dominican MVP winners.
"Sosa, This is Your Day," blared the lead sports page of the newspaper
Listin Diario, printed before the vote totals were announced.
Sosa will go to the Dominican Republic early Friday morning and meet with
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, said his agent, Tom Reich. Sosa, who
intends to spend about 10 days on the island, has been heavily involved in
helping the country recover from Hurricane Georges.
"My reputation outside the field, that counts a lot," Sosa said. "Maybe
people took it from there."
Sosa, given a hero's welcome last month when he returned to San Pedro de
Macoris, said his charitable foundation has been involved in distributing
food.
While Sosa was first or second on every ballot, McGwire got 20 seconds,
three thirds, one fourth, four fifths, one sixth and one seventh.
Even Cardinals manager Tony La Russa thought Sosa had the edge.
"I'm so biased it's ridiculous, but I think Sammy deserves it," La Russa
said during the season's final week. "I don't think he's done more for his
team than Mark has, but his team has done more than ours has, so his
contribution counts for a little more in my book. Just barely, but that's
who I would give it to."
Under their contracts, Sosa gets a $250,000 bonus for winning and
Houston's Moises
Alou gets a $10,000 bonus for finishing third with 215 points.
Atlanta's Andres
Galarraga gets a $100,000 bonus for finishing sixth.
It was the eighth time a Cubs player has won the MVP award, the first
since Andre Dawson in 1987.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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