Sammy Sosa

A look at this year's home run leaders approaching the record of 70 set by Mark McGwire last year. *--* MARK SAMMY MCGWIRE SOSA 54 59 *--* *--* 0 Thurday 1 62 On pace for 68 141 Games 140 59 1998 56 *--*

San Francisco Manager Dusty Baker had a tough decision in the eighth inning: let Sammy Sosa bat with two runners on and a two-run lead or walk him to face Mark Grace. After Sosa had already hit his major league-leading 53rd home run in the fifth inning, Baker chose to face Grace. "He made the wrong [decision]," Grace said. Grace hit a game-tying two-run single in the eighth and the Chicago Cubs rallied from five runs down to beat the Giants, 11-10, on Mickey Morandini's RBI double in the ninth.

For almost 40 years no one hit 60 home runs. Now Sammy Sosa has done it three times in four seasons. Sosa became the first player with three 60-homer seasons Tuesday night, a mark as impressive for its power as its consistency. "It's kind of mind-boggling to see what he's done," Chicago Cub Manager Don Baylor said. "You go almost 40 years with nobody hitting 60, and he's done it three times already. It's a pretty incredible feat."

Say it ain't Sosa? Say it ain't sawdust. You had to blink once or twice, especially if you weren't wearing protective woodshop goggles, if you tuned into ESPN midday Wednesday and saw two grown men gripping both ends of a baseball bat and another man sawing the bat in half. In simpler times, the three national faces of Chicago Cubs baseball belonged to Tinker, Evers and Chance.