Sosa Makes No. 63 Truly Grand

	Sammy Sosa salutes the crowd after slamming his 63rd home run – a towering grand slam – Wednesday against the Padres. (Eric Rinsberg - AP)

By Richard Justice
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 17, 1998; Page E1

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 16 – The San Diego Padres had pitched Sammy Sosa perfectly in the first two games of this series. And then tonight, right-hander Brian Boehringer left a pitch close to the middle of the plate with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth inning of a tie game.

That quickly, Boehringer became part of baseball history as Sosa ripped a towering grand slam into the left field seats for his 63rd home run. That was the difference in the Chicago Cubs' 6-3 victory over the Padres. Sosa finished 3 for 5. Until this season, no player in the 129-year history of major league baseball had hit 63 home runs in a single season. This week, it happened twice in two days.

First, Mark McGwire hit his 63rd on Tuesday in St. Louis. Tonight, Sosa matched him with a tremendous shot into the second deck, becoming just the 22nd player to hit a ball into the lodge level of Qualcomm Stadium.

Sosa tipped his hat as the crowd of 49,891 beckoned him from the dugout with a standing ovation. He received another ovation as he jogged to his position in right field in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Sosa has consistently maintained that helping the Cubs make the playoffs is more important than the home run race with McGwire. Tonight, he helped both causes by driving in six runs.

Sosa arrived here having hit four home runs in three days against the Milwaukee Brewers to catch McGwire. Despite the presence of huge crowds cheering his every move, Sosa went 1 for 9 with six strikeouts in the first two games of this series.

"We're all human beings," he said before tonight's game, clearly unbothered by the dry spell. "We don't know what's going to happen. I'm not going to be struggling for the rest of the year."

And then almost as an afterthought, he added: "I'm happy for Mark [hitting No. 63]. I don't have to hit home runs. If I finish with 62, that's pretty good. I have only one thing on my mind – getting to the playoffs. Everyone knows I'm not going to finish with 62, but hitting home runs is not what I'm thinking about."

Sosa singled to left in his first at-bat tonight, then flied to deep right field in the third, then struck out in the fifth. In the seventh, he got hot by doubling in two runs with the bases loaded. And in the eighth, he came up again with the bases loaded and cleared them with his second slam of the season.

Until tonight, Sosa's lone hit in the series was a single on Tuesday, this coming after McGwire's 63rd home run had given him back the major league lead.

"Mark doesn't have a chance to go the playoffs," Sosa said. "He'll have more opportunities to hit home runs. Me, I'm concerned with getting the Cubs to the playoffs. That's what's really important."

Sosa and McGwire had been tied with 62 home runs since Sunday when Sosa hit two against the Milwaukee Brewers. The two had been tied once earlier this season, but Sosa has led the race only once. That occurred during a Cardinals-Cubs game at Wrigley Field on Aug. 19 when Sosa hit his 48th homer in the fifth inning. McGwire had 47 at time, but hit his 48th in the eighth and 49th in the 10th. "It is unbelieveable," Sosa said. "No one thought Mark and I would hit 62 home runs in the same year. I hope our record will be there 40-45 years."

Until Tuesday, McGwire had not homered since hitting his 62nd on Sept. 8. A day after Sosa hit his 62nd, he struck out four times. Sosa watched as McGwire's 63rd was replayed on the JumboTron screen midway through Tuesday's game. And when he stepped to the plate in the ninth, he got a large loud ovation from fans who were letting him know it was time for him to answer McGwire. Instead, he struck out.

If McGwire has been an occasionally reluctant participant in the day-to-day give-and-take with reporters following the home run chase, Sosa has seemed energized by it. He does news conferences before and after every game and seems unbothered even when he's answering the same questions again and again.

"I like to talk to people," he said. "I like to let people know how I feel. I like to hear how people feel."