The only player to outsell MJ in jersey sales in the 1990s? You guessed it. Slammin' Sammy.
June 1998 was as close to heaven as many Chicago sports fans will ever get. The Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls were closing in on a sixth NBA title to close out their 'Last Dance' and Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa was putting together a month for the record books.
That month, Sosa set an MLB single-month record that still stands, hitting 20 home runs and slugging .842. For some context, that average OPS (on-base plus slugging) across the league in 1998 was .755. That launched in back into the Home Run Race alongside Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey Jr. and set the stage for an unforgettable second-half showdown between himself and the Cardinals' first baseman.
Just how popular was Sosa back then? This tweet from Obvious Shirts says it all.
Sammy Sosa poised to return at 2025 Chicago Cubs Convention
With Sosa set to make his long-awaited Chicago Cubs return at Cubs Convention in less than two weeks, it's the perfect time to reflect on what he meant to the fanbase - and to baseball, as a whole - when he was at his best. For a four-year stretch, he was otherworldly, doing things nobody in baseball history had done - which is really saying something.
As Cubs fans, we all know what Sosa meant back then: he was the Cubs. The emergence of Kerry Wood and, soon after, Mark Prior dampened that a touch, but there was no doubt who folks came to the ballpark or turned their TVs on for in the summer of 1998 - it was Sosa. But considering the worldwide phenomenon that Jordan and the Bulls were in the 90s, the fact Sosa out-sold Jordan in jersey sales, even for one month, is staggering.
After all, Jordan wasn't just the face of the Bulls - he was the face of American sports in the 1990s, and with good reason. It's strange to think that Sosa, as great as he was at his peak, could go blow-for-blow with MJ in something like jersey sales but, then again, maybe by that point, anyone who was buying their Jordan jersey already had it. He'd cemented himself as an institution years ago at that point.
Anyway. Here's to Slammin' Sammy, welcoming him back to Cubs Convention this month and celebrating all he meant - and means - to Cubs fans everywhere.
