Thanks for the memories, Slammin' Sammy

Sammy Sosa has unofficially called it quits, declining a $500,000 deal from the Nationals. Though Sosa is not on the retired list, his agent said that he's done.

Sosa had an awful year last year, but I thought he had some good baseball left in him. The Nationals were basically the only team willing to give him any sort of chance (at least from what I heard), and they weren't guaranteeing a chance to be a starting player or anything like that.

Sammy had a great career and is going to the Hall of Fame. He was maligned in recent years, because his attitude supposedly wasn't the same as when he was smiling all the time and calling Mark McGwire 'The Man' during his homerun binge in 1998. I followed Sosa's career ever since he first came up with the Rangers, and he was one of the first players whose eventual career path I predicted correctly from the very beginning. (Once I got to age 12 or so, I was starting to analyze statistics quite a bit and try to figure out who would do what. I might eventually try to parlay this via some sort of consulting for a baseball team, but I am focusing on other things at the moment. I'm definitely qualified in terms of ability, though obviously I don't have the official baseball track record I can put in a resume.) More recently, there was the bat corking incident, but I liked Sammy as a player and am sorry to see him ride off into the sunset.