A few weeks ago, I found that some lucky bags were available on an online sports card shop. I decided to buy 2 lucky bags. A week after placing the order, the lucky bags arrived.
After opening 2 packs, I found a Sammy Sosa relic card. It’s from the 2003 Topps Pristine. On the front, there’s a piece of game-used bat and Sosa was in the Cubs uniform. While seeing this card, I was just thinking about Sosa’s career with the Cubs.
Sosa played for the Cubs from 1992 to 2004. In those 13 seasons, he played 1811 games, hitting .284/.358/.569 with 545 home runs and 1414 RBI. Moreover, he stole 181 bases. While seeing Sosa’s stats as a Cub, I’m just wondering how good he was during those 13 seasons. To solve my doubts, I decided to check on the great Fangraphs website.
Firstly, let’s take a look at the number of home runs. From 1992 to 2004, 2 players each smashed 500+ home runs. Barry Bonds crushed 561 home runs and Sosa blasted 545 home runs. Rafael Palmeiro hit 478 home runs during those 13 seasons. Additionally, two Hall of Famers are on the list. During the same period, Ken Griffey Jr. hit 441 home runs and Jeff Bagwell had 431 home runs.
In addition, let’s look at the RBI leaders. From 1992 to 2004, 3 players each collected 1400+ RBI. Rafael Palmeiro had 1439 RBI and Jeff Bagwell collected 1428 RBI. At the same time, Sosa had 1414 RBI and Barry Bonds had 1390 RBI. During the same period, Hall of Famer Frank Thomas collected 1299 RBI.
Furthermore, let’s look at leaders in hits. 6 players each had more than 2000 hits from 1992 to 2004. Craig Biggio had 2185 hits and Jeff Bagwell had 2126 hits. Palmeiro had 2100+ hits as well. Hall of famer Roberto Alomar had 2039 hits. Bernie Williams and Kenny Lofton had 2000+ hits as well. Steve Finley collected 1993 hits during the same period and Sosa had 1985 hits.
Finally, let’s look at something interesting. From 1992 to 2004, Sammy Sosa got 1815 strikeouts, which were the most in the majors. In the meantime, Hall of Famer Jim Thome was struck out 1687 times. And 3 other players were each struck out 1400+ times.
Looking back at those 13 seasons, we can clearly see several players, who were later on elected to the Hall of Fame, hit outstandingly. For example, we see Jeff Bagwell on the leaderboard and Craig Biggio had collected a lot of hits. They both played for the Astros and baseball fans must remember the Killer B’s lineup. Meanwhile, Ken Griffey Jr. and Frank Thomas were 2 great hitters that did a lot of damage in those years. Nonetheless, there were some players, whose numbers were fantastic. But they probably won’t be elected to the Hall of Fame. Well, that’s the story in that era and there are still debates on whether “some players” should be selected to the Hall of Fame. And we can just keep watching how things will go on.
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