Should Sammy Sosa be in the Baseball Hall of Fame?
It's a question Deadspin is considering after it purchased a Hall of Fame ballot and subsequently turned to fans to decide how that ballot should be used.
The sports website plans to examine each of the 36 players on this year's ballot and ask readers how they'd vote. Up now is former Cubs slugger Sosa, whose epic Pinterest page cracked us up even in retirement.
"Going by the usual measures of value," Deadspin writes, "which use statistical totals as signifiers, Sammy Sosa is probably a Hall of Famer. Cut loose from those numbers, judged in his totality, he probably isn't."
Deadspin points to Sosa's 609 home runs during his 18-year career but notes numbers aren't everything. Allegations of performance enhancing drugs were mentioned as were the "best years of Sosa's baseball career."
"Sosa's five-year career arc is undoubtedly one of the greatest in baseball history, but the Hall, at least in my subjective estimation, is about totality. Sosa had one season, 2001, that ranks in the top 500 single seasons of all time. Everything else, once you file away the gaudy home run totals, was just pretty good."
How will fans vote? Vote for yourself here.
