Sammy Sosa of Texas homered off Cleveland's Paul Byrd in the sixth inning at Jacobs Field. It was the 44th different stadium, Sosa has homered in, a major league record. Ken Griffey and Fred McGriff had hit homers in 43 different parks.
The new Rangers park and Jacobs Field pushed Sosa over the top. Sosa played at Cleveland Municipal, the Tokyo Dome, and Estadio Hiram Bithorn in San Juan without hitting a homer there. He has not played at RFK or the new Busch Stadium.
Do you happen to know what active parks Griffey has yet to homer in? Does he still have a chance to catch Sammy, especially if he went to DH in the AL for a year or two? (obviously he could pass him by playing long enough to hit in some of the new stadiums being built that Sammy won't be around for, but that's another matter)
3 - Until I looked it up, I didn't realize that Sammy is only a year older than Griffey. Probably because Griffey came up very young, and was good much younger, and his problems the last few seasons have been almost entirely injury; when he's been on the field, he's mostly been a useful to good player. I guess I just don't see Sosa playing more than a year or two, but I could see Griffey moving to the AL and DHing or platooning into his early 40's. But I could be completely wrong, and Sammy might make a push for 660 while Griffey retires and heads out to pasture.
Interesting to note that before today, Sosa had never gone deep against the Indians - the only team he had played that he'd never hit one out against. Sosa has never played against the Cubs, but the Rangers have a series with them this year (June 19-21).
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