When baseball fans hear the name Sammy Sosa, an image of the slugger immediately pops into their heads after watching him hit home runs out of every baseball field throughout his career.
Those images are long gone as the former slugger looks completely different today.
Sosa faced controversy over skin bleaching after his complexion became noticeably white after retiring from baseball in 2004. Today, Sosa’s once dark brown skin is now, shockingly, almost completely white.
One picture has resurfaced online showing how different he looks.
Sosa, born in the Dominican Republic, has a much whiter complexion than he did during his MLB career. He’s said in the past that his skin carries a different appearance now because of a cream he uses that includes bleach.
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“It’s a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed and whitens my skin some,” Sosa said in a 2009 interview with Univision.
“What happened was that I had been using the cream for a long time and that, combined with the bright TV lights, made my face look whiter than it really is. I don’t think I look like Michael Jackson,” he said then.
In a 2018 interview with NBC Sports Chicago, he said he is healthy and denounced the criticism he’s received amid rumors of skin bleaching.
“Those people they sometimes criticize me, they don’t know me, they don’t put food on my table and they don’t pay my bills,” he said.
Sosa, along with Mark McGwire, is credited with bringing baseball back after he hit 66 home runs in 1998 and then 63 in 1999.
Sosa played 18 seasons in the major leagues and was a seven-time All-Star with the Cubs. He had a .273/.344/.534 career slash line and hit 609 homers, which ranks ninth on the all-time list.
