What have McGwire, Sosa been up to?
In the absence of live sporting events, we’ve all been spending a lot more time on memory lane over the past few months. And ESPN has done everything within its power to help fuel our nostalgia.
“Long Gone Summer” has transported us back to the summer of 1998 and the memorable home run record chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Both players, of course, broke Roger Maris’ long-held record of 61 homers that year.
Part of the fun with these “remember when” documentaries is not just reliving the moments, but also reacquainting yourself with the main characters – and learning more about what they’ve been up to in the years since. For McGwire, life after retirement has largely revolved around baseball. For Sosa ... well, not so much.
The longtime Chicago Cubs’ slugger played his last game in 2007 and officially announced his retirement in 2009, and his post-baseball life has been largely private. Sports Illustrated reported in 2018 that Sosa had legally established residence in Dubai, with another home in Miami and business interests in Panama, the United Kingdom and his native Dominican Republic. His eldest son, Sammy Jr., told the magazine at the time that his father “is a really closed-off person, even with me.”
Sosa, who is now 51, has also drawn attention in recent years for changes in his complexion. He told Univision in 2009 that he had been using a bleaching cream on his skin, according to a translation of his comments by ESPN.
“It’s a cream that I have, that I use to soften (my skin), but has bleached me some,” Sosa said, according to ESPN. “I’m not a racist. I live my life happily.”
McGwire, meanwhile, has spent most of his post-playing career still working in baseball.
Roughly eight years after his final MLB plate appearance with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2001, the team hired him to be its hitting coach.
He spent three years there, three years in the same role with the Los Angeles Dodgers and then three years as the San Diego Padres’ bench coach. The 56-year-old stepped down after 2018 to spend more time with family, according to multiple reports.