The Sammy Sosa Experiment

*************BIG LEAGUE DORK ALERT**************
*******Please Do Not Read If You Want To Retain Respect For The Author***********
*******Must Be Massive Sports Nerd To Find Entertainment Value In The Following***********

There was this board game I played as a kid that involved baseball cards, dice and a chart. You simply took your player’s stats from his baseball card and rolled the dice. Then you would plug the numbers into your chart and it would tell you the results of the at bat. It was boat loads of fun. The generic name for this game was “Stat-o-matic Baseball”, but I think the version I played was some type of derivative of the original version. None the less I played this game maniacally during the summer months. I wish I could say “I had all my friends over and we played every day” but that would simply be untrue. Most of the time I played by myself and I was happy rolling the dice, checking the result and repeating over and over and over. A complete waste of time. I should have spent that time practicing algebra or reading chemistry text books and I probably would have developed skills that actually translated into a higher paying job. Not my thing. Playing baseball via a dice game was my thing and to a certain extent it still is. Let’s go ahead and fast forward to current day and see how I manage to waste my time now.


When I was introduced to “Out of the Park Baseball” aka OOTPB in 2002 I announced to no one that my social life was over. This game would guarantee I would never have a girlfriend again. OOTPB is a baseball simulator that basically takes all the principles of “Stat-O-Matic” baseball, pumps them full of steroids and unleashes them upon unsuspecting sports nerds like myself. The game is able to accurately recreate every single season ever played in the history of baseball. You can take this thing all the way back to the 1800’s and take it from there. Want to play a season with the 1975 Reds? No problem. You can start your game during spring training and take Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and Ken Griffey all the way through the season. Every variable is controllable. If you want complete historical accuracy that’s an option. If you want a little variation to how it actually played out you can go ahead and set it up that way. Every single aspect of the game is customizable. From the player's moodiness to your farm director’s strategy with young arms, it’s all there.





The game is actually overwhelming in some aspects. There is almost too much to fiddle with but that’s a good problem to have. If you play with the 1998 Cardinals, Mark McGwire is a fan favorite, power hitting 1st basemen that will crank out between 65-70 home runs for your club. How about taking 1982 Rickey Henderson for a test drive and watching as he steals two bases a night while destroying your club house with his poor personality rating. How about taking the 1997 Marlins, not breaking up the team and then watching them battle the burgeoning Yankee dynasty for baseball supremacy? The possibilities are endless. This game is the best thing that ever happened to me since I discovered masturbation.




I recently decided to take this simulator way over the top by letting my imagination run wild and playing out a “what if” scenario with my beloved Chicago White Sox. I was perusing YouTube the other day and I came across an interesting clip of Frank Thomas’ 1st major league at bat. Since baseball doesn’t want fans enjoying the history of the game online, clips of things like this are very rare. Towards the end of the at bat a familiar player comes into view in the foreground. A young Sammy Sosa waits on deck looking like Easy E with his jehri curls popping out from under his batting helmet. I always knew Sosa played for both Chicago teams. I knew the Sox had him for a while before shipping him to the north side for George Bell. I never realized that the Sox had Sosa and Big Frank in the same lineup for the better part of 1 ½ years. For whatever reason I didn’t know their careers briefly over lapped in 1990 and 1991. So that got me thinking the obvious. What if the White Sox held on to both Sosa and Thomas for the duration of their respective primes? The White Sox gave up on Sosa early and for good reason looking at his production for the Pale Hose. What if they had been patient and saw the potential of juicing up their wisp thin right fielder and letting him unleash that raw power all of Comiskey Park? Who knows what would have happened. I sure want to find out!



It’s impossible for a simulator to take into consideration every single aspect of a players development. For enjoyments sake and for the sake of this article we’re going to say whatever data OOTPB spits out at me is EXACTLY what would have happened if Thomas and Sosa played together on the south side throughout the 90’s. So here we go. One take. No reset button. However it plays out is how it would have went down.

(Please note this will be somewhat of an ongoing article. It takes a lot of time to crank out these seasons so I’ll update it as I go along)

Here is how I set it up :

*Spring training 1990. All MLB rosters accurate as of that date.

*I control every aspect of the White Sox budget and have final say on all roster moves.

*The CPU controls day to day managerial operation and promotion/demotion to the minors due to injuries, poor performance etc.

*My GM recommends draft picks, trades and free agents but I ultimately sign off on everything. I rule the White Sox with an iron fist. I did give the GM full control over the coaching staff. He can fire and hire people as he pleases. Had to throw him a bone after I undermined all of his other typical responsibilities.

*I take away chance on a few things. First off, Frank Thomas and Sammy Sosa are set to “untouchable” so my GM doesn’t shop them around and ruin my alternate universe. Second, I intentionally prevent the acquisition of any veteran right fielder to ensure Sammy is an everyday player. Unlike Big Frank, Sosa comes into 1990 as a raw prospect with a below average rating. The plan is to be incredibly patient with Sammy until he grows into a full blown slugger. This game will accurately simulate the “Steroid Era” as the 90’s progress. As you get to the later part of the decade the home runs will start to fly and then I’ll be rewarded for my patience with Sosa. I wonder if other team owners know what’s coming. Third, Frank Thomas starts the 1990 season in Double A. Not when I’m running the show. I make sure he’s called up on Opening Day and batting 3rd in the lineup as a rookie.

*The plan is to play this thing out until they both retire.

*It’s somewhat easy to cheat when it comes to the draft in this game. When you look at the pool of prospects and you see Mike Piazza it’s easy to grab him over a no name because you know that he’s going to get really good in a few years. There are ways to handicap yourself (the game gives you the option of randomizing ratings and potential) but I want players that actually panned out to pan out in the game. What I’m going to do is just draft a few “name” guys I liked over the years and focus on picking players that can hit ahead and behind of Sosa and Thomas. Otherwise, without randomizing potential ratings, I could easily stack a dream team of superstars and run baseball into the ground with back to back 162-0 seasons.

The 1990 season kicks off in Chicago on April 6th. George Bush I is in office. The Cold War is coming to an end. Microsoft is days away from releasing Windows 3.0.

A rookie Ken Griffey Jr plays outfield in Seattle with his father Ken Griffey Sr. A young outfielder in Pittsburgh named Barry Bonds approaches his 100th career home run.

In Chicago, the White Sox prepare for the start of the final season at the original Comiskey Park. The lineup is filled with names familiar to every White Sox fan. Ventura, McDowell, Sosa, Thigpen, Guillen, Karcovice, Fernandez and Big Frank Thomas.

Big Frank is named by the simulator as the #1 Prospect in MLB during spring training. That’s good enough to convince me to stick him on the opening day roster and to see what he can do in the show. Sure he probably could use some seasoning in Double AA but this is my alternate universe and it will be run however I please.

I’ve handed over managing duties to my well compensated skipper Jeff Torborg. Torborg knows I’m a tyrant so he takes immediate action when I casually suggest that Frank Thomas start at 1st base and bat third all season. The manager also notices that I have a deep affinity for a young Dominican right fielder named Sammy Sosa. I see great potential in Sosa. Perhaps multiple 60 home run seasons. Therefore I demand that he is an everyday player despite being him being only 20 years old.

Sosa enters 1990 as a middling prospect who really isn’t good enough for the majors. To put Frank and Sammy’s initial ratings in “Madden Terms” Frank is rated at 77 but has a 99 potential rating and he’s only 21. Sammy is at 61 with only a 66 in the potential department. (Steroids won’t be introduced into the simulation for another couple years, be patient).

Despite the low rating of my right fielder I feel I have a pretty strong lineup from top to bottom. My pitching staff is anchored by Cy Young candidate Jack McDowell and he’s backed in the bullpen by the legendary Bobby Thigpen. Thigpen is randomly traded during the 1st month of the season by the AI. At this point I hadn’t quite figured out how to set it up so the AI consults me prior to any trade. Don’t worry though heads rolled after that one. I fired my pitching coach who had absolutely nothing to do with the trade. Why did I do this? Because it’s my team and somebody needed to be made an example of.

To say Frank Thomas made a splash during his rookie season would be a vast understatement. The guy tore it up for the South Siders. After feeling things out in April, Frank exploded in May and June earning Rookie of the Month honors each of those months. His first half performance was enough to land a spot on the AL All Star team as a reserve. Frank took offense to not starting in the All Star Game and took his frustrations out on American League pitching for the rest of the season.

I screamed in excitement as virtual Frank (who is represented on screen by nothing but numbers) killed it each and every day during July of 1990 on his way to being named not only Rookie of the Month but AL Player of the Month as well!

If that wasn’t enough, the Big Hurt earned his major league nickname the following month when he won his second consecutive AL player of the month award for August!

My first base prospect was performing way beyond my wildest dreams. His individual success was great but the team struggled overall.

We finished 3rd in the division 6 game out of 1st place.

Our final record was 79-83 which is decent but not what I'm looking for so I fired Jeff Torborg just because I can.

The team's batting average was .254 and ERA was 3.23.

Following the post season I was happy to see Frank Thomas rewarded for his fine defensive play winning a Gold Glove at 1st base. (Go ahead and re-read that sentence White Sox fans who actually watched the real Frank play 1st base. Call it youthful bliss.)
As expected Thomas added the AL Rookie of the Year award to his trophy case. After he wrapped up this award with amazing ease I decided to throw some money around to ensure his happiness. I found that virtual dollars are really easy to spend even while working on a budget.

I inked Big Frank to a 3 year 4.1 million dollar extension keeping him in the black and white at least through 1994. (If that dollar amount seems really small, it is. Inflation and rising salaries are accurately represented depending on the year you’re playing).

The very next day after the contract extension I was shocked when MLB named Frank Thomas the 1990 AL MVP! In his first season! It wasn’t undeserved but still surprising. Virtual Frank’s mood and popularity rankings spiked at this point and I had myself a happy, productive and rich young player to fool with. Here are Frank’s totals in 1990 :

.302 avg 30 HRs 88 RBI’s 98 R 168 H 22 2B’s .439 OBP .522 SLG 140 BB

Led the league in on base %, slugging % and walks.

.439 OBP was 4th highest single season average in White Sox history (As of '93)

140 walks most in team history for a single season.

Pretty solid numbers. Not eye popping (remember this is the pre steroid era). I'm satisfied with my rookie 1st baseman setting team records for walks and on base % while winning rookie of the year and MVP. Can't ask for much more, except maybe some production in right field which leads me to Sosa's first season in Chicago.

Sammy appeared in 145 games in 1990 and struggled to stay above the mendoza line all season. My manager...excuse me my ex-manager...toyed with Sosa's spot in the lineup starting him in multiple outfield slots and even once at second base (what!??!).

My scouts project Sosa as a future center fielder given his incredibly high running speed. (The early 20's version of Slammin Sammy is quite speedy in this game).

Overall, he was bad. An owner with less vision than myself would have insisted on Sammy spending time in the minors. Especially since his 163 strike outs in 1990 were 3rd most in team history for a single season.

I'm backing off a bit on my Sammy must play in the majors at all times stance. I'll keep him up there but I can't have him handicapping my lineup batting .205 hitting 10 home runs and striking out once every four plate appearances.

The winter of 90-91 is pretty quiet.

I begrudgingly let Ozzie Guillen (who won the Al Gold Glove at SS) sign with a National League team. He was a below average hitter in 1990 and I want to stockpile some cash to spend on a starting pitcher.

In the first year player draft I spot a 18 year old pitcher from the Dominican Republic named Pedro Martinez. Pedro looks pretty good so a snatch him up and offer a nice signing bonus.

I assign him to Single A ball and my farm director projects him as a closer rather than a starter. I set him straight and insist that he is developed into a starting pitcher (you can debate the AI on these things).

Two weeks later I check the farm system report that's emailed to me every week and my farm director once again projects Pedro as a closer and inserts him into that role with my A level team.

This is simply unacceptable.

The game is played on a "calendar" so you progress through the year and stop the simulation during significant dates.

I'm so incensed with my farm director I wait until Christmas Day (we'll say Christmas morning for hilarities sake) and then give him the ax.

Could I have done this on a non holiday? Sure. I'm ruthless though.

The 1991 campaign really pulled at my heart strings. I spend serious dough in early spring to yank Tony LaRussa away from the Oakland A’s (Ken “Hawk” Harelson the current White Sox broadcaster fired LaRussa when he was GM in the 80’s) and suddenly I have managing excellence.

LaRussa cajoles a fine season out of young Sammy Sosa as the young Dominican hovers around the .250 mark all year long while hitting with decent power and stealing bases.

Big Frank follows up on his MVP season with an even better effort. My virtual cash is well spend on the Big Hurt. Frank doesn’t secure another MVP trophy, but statistically has a better season than his rookie campaign. He again starts the All Star Game and wins the Silver Slugger Award at his position. The game has this rating of “fan favorite” that directly impacts your ticket sales and revenue. The $1.3 million I pay Frank annually pales in comparison to the gate he is bringing in the door. Yes I just bragged about exploiting a virtual character in a text based computer simulator. Feels good though. Try it sometime.

Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura and even young Sammy Sosa contribute to a decent 1991 White Sox team that makes a run at the pennant. We battle Minnesota right to the wire when Sosa makes a puzzling decision.

During game 159. With the Sox tied atop the AL Central, Sammy Sosa is beaned during a game against the Baltimore Orioles. Does the yet to be known as Slammin Sammy brush it off and walk to 1st base? Of course not. Sosa charges the mound and sets off a bench clearing brawl that gets 3 other players suspended and costs Sammy a 5 games. It wasn’t the heart of the pennant chase or anything.

The White Sox lose the final 3 games without Sosa and miss the playoffs.

As team owner I spend a long, hard winter reconsidering The Sammy Sosa Experiment.

You know how women sometimes get depressed and cure it by going shopping and blowing loads of cash? That’s kind of how I handled the end of 1991. It was time to make a splash in free agency. I decided if I was going to spend some cash I was really going to stick it to that other franchise I share a city with.

What could I do that would really stick it to the Cubs? What happened in the early 90’s that Cubs fans bemoaned for years? I know! I got it! Greg Maddux signed with the Braves in ’92 and went on the win multiple Cy Young awards for Ted Turner’s Braves! How about I stick my nose right in the Atlanta-Maddux negotiations and lure Maddux to do the unthinkable. Come to the South Side!?!?!?

It was easy actually. I simply over paid Maddux by a good $4 million dollars and he happily inked a 3 year, $21.4 million dollar deal with the pale hose. Sure it killed my budget for the next 3 years but it was worth it just to irk the North Siders.

With Maddux joining a rotation featuring Jack McDowell and Alex Fernandez my pitching looks stellar on paper.

It doesn’t happen for one reason or the other in 1992.

Maddux wins the Cy Young going 21-9 with a 2.99 ERA but McDowell struggles with a 10-15 record.

Sosa can’t replicate the success of last year and never gets going. He suffers three separate injuries that land him on the DL for lengthy periods.

Big Frank tops 40 home runs but cannot carry the lineup by himself.

We finish a respectable 85-77 after a late push, finishing 7 games back.

I’m not terribly disappointed because the injury bug my team caught in ’92. Still, I’m not able to hold on to Tony LaRussa as manager because of budget constraints. Tony flees for the greener pastures of Montreal (not kidding) and signs a long term deal. I promote the manager of my AA Birmingham affiliate because his name is Juan Velverde and he’s from Columbia. I think that’s cool, but I’m sure I’ll use Juan as scapegoat for something in the coming years. I’m that kind of owner.

I’m getting anxious for Sammy to make the jump in 1993 even though I know it may be years away. I give him a competitive contract just to increase his comfort level in Chicago. I know 1998 is coming. (Maybe a bit of a built in advantage for a team owner. “Ability to predict the future.” Would you agree?)

Frank Thomas continues as a perennial All Star setting his personal best for batting average, slugging %, doubles and walks. In fact, after just three full seasons Thomas holds 3 of the top 5 single season walk records in White Sox history. I’d say he’s a keeper.

During the Winter Meetings of 1993 (they really have Winter Meetings where you can maneuver for trade leverage with other virtual owners) I decide to make a move.

For some reason, I have a lot of trouble accepting Pedro Martinez in the White Sox farm system. This is ridiculous I know. Pedro is one of the most dominate right handers in major league history. He just doesn’t look right in the black and white pinstripes. It’s time to part ways just two years after drafting the Dominican Daddy.

I ink a major deal with the Boston Red Sox sending my top prospect east in return for several veterans most prominently Reggie Sanders (who was a batting average and base stealing demon for me the next 7 years).

Free from Pedro I move forward in the simulation.

The ’94 strike kills a promising White Sox season just like it did in real life 17 years ago.

Sosa is so bad for most of ’94 that I’m forced to demote him to AAA Charlotte for most of the year. Boy did he perform for the farm team though. Sosa is named Minor League Player of the Month 4 consecutive times and belts 37 home runs for my AAA affiliate. Patience Jeffrey. Patience.

I’m piping mad about the strike and Sammy so I do what makes me feel best. Cut some dead weight. Rather than restructure on an individual basis, I just clean house and fire every executive in the organization from GM to Single A pitching coach. It was a move I would regret later after it took me 2 ½ hours to sort through all the available managers to plug holes in the dike.

It’s contract time for Big Frank and for Greg Maddux in 1995. They both know their owner loves handing out big money. I address Frank first and ink him to a deal that will makes his children’s children’s children multi millionaires. I want my first basemen happy. After all, this experiment is based on his longevity.

Maddux is a different story.

The move I made to piss off Cubs fans came back to bite me as Greedy Greg left the White Sox 3 years later for just a half million more back on the North Side. Maybe he regretted leaving in the first place. I’m not torn up about it though. I got 56 wins out of him in three seasons. It was worth the money and the backstab.

The ’95 season is a battle between us and the burgeoning dynasty in Detroit. The Tigers had won the World Series the previous two season mainly on the strength of Barry Lamar Bonds. Detroit managed to sign Barry away from Pittsburgh instead of San Francisco getting him (It’s a variable sim OK?). Barry blasts AL Central pitching on his way to consecutive MVP’s and World Series rings.

Barry is too much for my aging and thin pitching staff to handle.

We play Detroit close until the last week of the season in 1995, but again fall just 2 games short of a Wild Card berth. (The Wild Card round is introduced in ’95 and is a breath of fresh air. More opportunity to make the playoffs and bank some cash? I’m all for it. Thanks to Rangers owner George W. Bush for the idea.)

In ’96 it starts happening. Sammy has discovered Pablo, the Ecuadorian HGH slanger, and has assigned him as his personal attendant. The muscles grow, the temper rages, the infamous boom box is introduced to the White Sox clubhouse (take the leap of faith with me guys, just close your eyes). Suddenly balls that fell short on the warning tracking are flying into the leftfield bullpen. It’s all coming together.

Then Frank got hurt. Mid May. 3 game set down in Texas. Big Frank takes one in the hand and is out for 4 months.

Young, burgeoning, roided up Sammy Sosa carries the White Sox offense through the summer of 1996. But he’s all we got. The pitching staff has fallen apart. I’ve held on to the contract of Jack McDowell for far too long. He no longer can produce and with a tear streaming down my cheek I place my all time favorite White Sox pitcher on waivers. Nobody claims him and I force an early retirement. Sorry Black Jack. Big Frank comes back in early September but the deficit is too great in the AL Central.

The ’96 White Sox again miss the playoffs. If you’re scoring at home I’ve missed the playoffs in each of my seasons as White Sox GM. Good think I checked that “Can’t Be Fired” option prior to starting this dynasty.

I still confident though. I have a minimal amount of cash to toss around because the loss of Frank the previous season hurt revenue. The virtual Jerry Reinsdorf refuses to go into the red for pay roll.

During the winter I feel like a guy playing Monopoly for 6 hours that is finally aware of the lack of money in the bank. I’m starting to lose it. I need Sammy and Frank to bust out and bust out soon.

Then ’97 happens.

Historically speaking, the ‘97 season OOTP Baseball spit out on my computer screen was the biggest statistical anomaly you’ll ever see.

All the patience I showed in Sosa finally paid off. The young slugger carries my lineup to the point I had to really debate who the best player on my roster was. Slammin Sammy produces the finest season of his young career :

.260 44 HR 132 RBI 20 SB .801 OPS

Just a massive year for Sosa.

“I always knew he’d be good,” I tell the assembled media with a wink after Sosa is named to his first All Star team.

Frank Thomas has a huge year even by his standards :

.355 Avg 32 HRs 125 RBIs 1.03 OPS

Something was wrong though. The 1997 Chicago White Sox finished atop the AL in every single major offensive category.

The 1997 Chicago White Sox also finished dead last in the AL in every single defensive or pitching category imaginable.

You know the people that say pitching and defense win championships? Yeah, they know what they’re talking about.

We couldn’t get a god damn out to save our lives. My infield consisting of Mike Caruso, The Ancient Ozzie Guillen (I brought him back), Frank Thomas and Robin Ventura can’t field during a crucial September series in Oakland. They boot away 3 of the 4 games and drop me into a first place tie with the hated Twins who I also face during the last series of the year.

This is where my dearth of pitching bites me in the ass. 4 years back I tossed around a lot of cash to secure Maddux, Alex Fernandez and Jack McDowell. This was a poor choice in retrospect. McDowell and Fernandez instantly lost their productivity and Greedy Greg left me for a minimal pay raise. Then I traded Pedro Martinez for no reason other than it was weird having him. Poor moves that have left a black hole in my rotation. I now rely on pitchers who belong in AA with no experience and or talent.

I go into the last series of the year with studs such as Mike Sirotka, Danny Darwin and Jason Bere. Look up their Baseball Reference page sometime. You won’t find many wins.

I didn’t find any wins that last series against Minnesota. Again the playoffs were ripped from my clutches in late September. A long off season loomed.

You know one thing I didn’t think about prior to the predictable 1998 explosion? Both Sammy and Frank have contracts due that year. Whoops! Maybe I should have structured that differently.

I see financial problems in the future so I lowball Sosa during negotiations hoping that I can turn his skin white. He doesn’t bite. In fact he’s angered (virtually) and refuses to discuss his contract until just before spring training. I reach deep into my pocket and sign my right fielder to a $5.5 million dollar contract on day one of the spring. Let’s just say Sammy beat me at the negotiating table on that one. I needed him for this article.

When I first had the idea for this experiment I hoped that Sosa and Thomas would grow together throughout the 90’s and then unleash holy hell upon major league baseball in 1998. It didn’t exactly happen that way. ’98 was the most fun year to play however. Look how closely their respective virtual performance mirrored the actual ’98 season.

Sammy Sosa Real 1998 Season Stats

.308 Avg 66 HRs 158 RBIs 1.024 OPS

Sammy Sosa Simulated 1998 Season Stats

.279 Avg 69 HRs 155 RBIs .993 OPS (Sammy never hit for average virtually but he did hit that magic 69 home run mark)


Frank Thomas Real 1998 Season Stats

.265 Avg 29 HRs 109 RBIs .861 OPS

Frank Thomas Simulated 1998 Season Stats

.271 25 HRs 96 RBIs .871 OPS

Not that far off at all.

Despite blistering the American League with power hitting my Sox team cannot break through. Cleveland’s strong team destroys mine throughout the year and I can’t hoard enough arms to keep them at bay.

I decide it’s time for a reality check. Having missed the playoffs 8 consecutive years I deserve to be fired. The Sammy Sosa Experiment did not work. It was fun, but it didn’t work. The huge amount of pay roll I had to reserve for just two players has impacted the club in many ways. My bench is weak. My pitching staff lacks depth and experience. My bullpen might as well not show up for games. It’s a disaster on the south side.

Similar to an outgoing President issuing midnight pardons during his last day in office, I make a move. On my way out the door I decide to free the White Sox of Sammy Sosa.

I ship Sammy to Cubbie land where he belongs. In a three team trade I receive a gang of pitching prospects from the Cubs. One prospect goes by the last name Wood. The other, Sabathia. These guys should be good.

Suckers.