Touching 'em all; two years ago, Sammy Sosa groused at criticism that his game was lacking in several aspects. Then he took it to heart

Sporting News, The, April 1, 2002 by Ken Rosenthal

He bristled at Baylor's remarks, saying the manager had "no class." But today, Sosa concedes that Baylor was right.

"Maybe the message he wanted to give me was a good message," Sosa says. "Maybe I was doing something that I was thinking was good for me, but it wasn't good. I came back here and changed. Here I am. I feel great now. I feel that I can do it all."

The turning point for Sosa occurred shortly the 2000 All-Star break. He had spent the first half of the season feuding with Baylor, brooding over his stalled contract talks. The Cubs nearly traded him to the Yankees. His future in Chicago was in doubt. But in a meeting with his agents--Adam Katz and Tom Reich--Sosa decided to postpone negotiations until the end of the season and informed the Cubs he would exercise his contractual right to veto any trade.

From there, Sosa took off. He hit two homers against the White Sox the weekend before the break, then won the home run derby during All-Star week in Atlanta. When the regular season resumed, Baylor noticed immediately that Sosa looked more determined, more dedicated to reviving his all-around game.

"I came back and said to myself, `I don't want to go through that situation anymore. I'm going to drop the case and wait until the year's over'" Sosa recalls. "That was a great move by me. It was getting out of hand, out of control."

Sosa finished with a league-leading 50 homers. He signed his four-year, $72 million extension the following March. And he assumed greater leader ship responsibility last season after longtime Cub Mark Grace joined the Diamondbacks as a free agent. "It became more of (Sosa's) team," Baylor says. "He felt a little more relaxed, a little more in tune with the team."

His head clear, Sosa went to work on his body. Rather than continuing to bulk up--the trend among modern sluggers--Sosa slimmed down. He played at 225 pounds last season, down from his peak of 235 to 240 in 1999. "It made him a little quicker," La Russa says. "And it translated into him being a little bit better player in all regards."

When Baylor first mentioned that he wanted Sosa to become more complete, he cited the 30-homer, 30 stolen-base plateau that Sosa reached in 1993 and '95. Well, Sosa no longer steals bases--he failed in his only two attempts last season and has managed only 14 steals over the past three years. But Baylor is not about to nitpick after a season in which Sosa led the N.L. with 146 runs. As the manager says, "No one goes harder from first to third." And Sosa doesn't need to steal bases when he's trotting around them 60 times a year.

Sosa's improved conditioning also made a difference in his outfield play. Baylor says that Sosa got to more balls last season. (His number of putouts didn't increase dramatically, but defensive statistics don't always measure range adequately.) Some scouts and opposing coaches maintain that Sosa is only an average outfielder. But Expos general manager Omar Minaya, the former scout who signed Sosa for the Rangers, says Sosa receives a "bad rap" for his defense, citing the difficulty of playing in the wind and sun at Wrigley Field.