Sosa, Tied in Home Runs, Trails in Market Clout

By Thomas Heath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 24, 1998; Page C1

Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa pulled even with the St. Louis Cardinals' Mark McGwire in the major league home run derby yesterday, after both of them passed Roger Maris's record of 61 home runs earlier this season. Yet some sports marketers say Sosa may not hit a home run in the endorsement game.

McGwire has led the home run chase for all but a few innings this season, broke the record before Sosa and has been in the major leagues longer than Sosa, all factors that make McGwire more marketable, experts say. They also believe that regardless of the final home run count, McGwire will be in more demand than Sosa as an endorser because he appeals to a wider audience.

"It's a delicate and unfortunate issue . . . but because of some drawbacks to classic marketability, i.e., an all-American image or all-American background, [Sosa] will need to win the [home run] race either in dramatic or decisive fashion in order to achieve the level of marketability McGwire would hold if he were to win the title," said Fred Fried, executive vice president of Integrated Sports International, which represents several major athletes.

Some marketers believe McGwire, who is white, of Irish-American descent and hails from the affluent suburbs of Los Angeles, is more appealing to corporate and consumer America and in a stronger position to reap the rewards from the home run race than Sosa, who is from the Dominican Republic.

At the moment, McGwire appears to be in far greater demand. International Creative Management and other agencies are vying to represent him, and Jay Leno, David Letterman, "Saturday Night Live" and Esquire magazine are requesting appearances or covers, according to people close to McGwire. He also has a slate of blue-chip corporations lined up for his services, although McGwire has reportedly told business agent Robert Cohen, a Los Angeles lawyer, that he will not consider offers until the end of the season.

McGwire's current endorsements are estimated at $1 million a year, while some industry observers believe that Sosa's are worth about $400,000.

"Marketers market to the broadest audience," said Fried, who had some success selling Nigerian-born basketball superstar Hakeem Olajuwon's image to American consumers. "And the broadest audience is typically accepting of the all-American image."

So far McGwire, who has not previously pursued endorsement agreements aggressively, plans to work with only a few national sponsors on major deals. He has endorsements with General Mills, Walt Disney Co. and Rawlings Sporting Goods and appears in a full-page ad in this week's Sports Illustrated for Franklin batting gloves. At the end of the season, some marketing experts predict that McGwire could command up to $1 million for a television commercial, compared with about half that for Sosa.

"It's naive to say, 'Gee, this has nothing to do with race,'‚" said Robert Erb, chief marketer for shoe giant adidas, which has its eye on signing Sosa when his Nike deal expires in February. "But the story is, who was first? Does anyone remember who was second to the North Pole or second crossing the Atlantic alone in an airplane? The end of the story isn't written. And this is, 'Who will hit more home runs?'‚"

Erb said another factor is that baseball players earn less from endorsements than athletes in other sports, where the exposure is less frequent. But agents say that can change.

Sosa has appeared with McGwire in a MasterCard commercial, but aside from a relatively modest deal to wear Nike products, his commercial work has been limited to the Chicago area. His likeness is on a 15-story building for Chicago clothier Bigsby & Kruthers and has has been in a regional television commercial for McDonald's chicken wings.

Mark Leonard of Chicago-based Integrated Marketing Solutions, which represents Sosa, first noticed the lukewarm response to his client when Sosa was on a tear in June, setting a major league single-month record with 20 home runs.

"We were calling out [on the telephone], but the calls weren't coming back in," said Leonard.

Don Nomura, Los Angeles-based agent for Mets pitcher Hideo Nomo and Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu as well as several Latin American players, said Americans will not warm to Sosa as quickly as they will to McGwire.

"Being a foreigner does not represent well in the United States," said Nomura, who said he has had difficulty signing his Japanese and Latin American athletes to U.S. endorsement deals. "It's the impact. If you're not an American, [the athlete] doesn't have the impact."

There are some exceptions. Olajuwon starred in a comical Visa commercial several years ago that spoofed his foreign accent. Sosa's ability to speak both Spanish and English could pay off.

"Taking Sosa's language skills into account, I would imagine that would make him even more marketable for companies trying to reach the Caribbean and Latin American market," said Peter de Tagyos, local event vice president for Lucent Technologies. "Marketers know every weakness can be turned into a strength."

Sosa is also competing with the public's familiarity with McGwire, who has been in the big leagues for 12 years, played on three World Series teams and hit 363 home runs.

Sosa, who at 29 is just beginning to peak, came almost out of nowhere. Not even the best-known player on the Cubs, he had hit 207 home runs at the beginning of this season, including 36 last year.

"Endorsers might be a little reluctant to use Sammy because he's crept up all of a sudden," said Brian Goldberg, agent for Ken Griffey Jr. "What if next year he doesn't have a good year?"

McGwire and Griffey, who has 55 homers this season, offer predictability, said Goldberg. Case in point: After McGwire hit 58 home runs last year, Rawlings approached him to endorse an aluminum bat the company was planning to launch this year. With two straight 50-plus home run seasons, they thought it was a good bet that McGwire would have another big year in 1998.

"Sammy Sosa has had several good years, but nobody expected him to have this kind of year," said Chuck Malloy, Rawlings' senior product manager for baseball and softball gloves.

After signing a $40 million contract this spring, Sosa, who lives on the 55th floor of a downtown Chicago skyscraper with his wife and children, decided to get serious about selling himself and called Leonard.

"He was at a stage feeling more comfortable seeking endorsements, felt more comfortable approaching companies," said Leonard. The Nike deal was all he had at the time.

Sosa's coming-out has been the home run race, and he has set himself up perfectly to reap the most he can from advertisements, according to Bob Williams of Chicago-based Burns Sports. His highly acclaimed actions on the field, his relaxed joking with McGwire at news conferences and his embrace of his rival when McGwire hit No. 62 in a nationally televised game against the Cubs, all have helped solidify a positive image in the public eye.

"The image people have of him is of a tremendous athlete who has been extremely classy and behaved incredibly well," said Williams. He called Sosa "a breath of fresh air in terms of attitude. He handled the [home run] pressure better than Ken Griffey Jr., better than McGwire."

Now it's time to wait and see what and whom the public buys.