| Earlier in the day, Bonds learned that Sammy Sosa ripped him in a Chicago newspaper. Bonds was flabbergasted that what started as a friendly conversation with the Cubs' slugger has spiraled into a media-fueled, "he-said, he-said" feud. Last week, Bonds ran into Sosa before a game and good-naturedly gave his blessing for Sosa to shoot for Bonds' home-run record. Sosa relayed Bonds' good wishes to reporters, who then approached Bonds for a comment. Bonds was dismayed that Sosa publicized their conversation and complained half-jokingly about Sosa "running his mouth." A Chicago Sun-Times reporter ran that past Sosa, who then lit into Bonds. "Now I have to believe all the negative things that have been said about him by his teammates are true," Sosa told the Sun-Times. "I'm a team player, not a selfish player. I thought he was a good person. |
| Sam-ME |
| From The San Francisco Chronicle Thursday, March 7, 2002 |
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"That doesn't surprise me, coming from Barry. I always admired him as a player and a person, but now I have to say that I don't care about him or what he says. I'm disappointed because I have always said good things about him." As Bonds read a printout of Sosa's comments, he shook his head and laughed. In a perfectly appropriate malaprop, Bonds said it was unfortunate that the media "mis-screwed a couple of things." Bonds also called this "a sad day for baseball." |
"I think it's childish, to be honest with you. I don't know what made Sammy burst out like that," he said. "I always said Sammy should be MVP, many times. I'm the one who has always voted for Sammy to do something special. For Sammy to think that I'm not rooting for him to be successful, then that's sad, especially as two minority athletes in the game of baseball," Bonds said. "I've got a lot of respect for Sammy Sosa. I love the guy from the bottom of my heart to the top of my heart, and this little outburst isn't going to change a thing. If it changed his mind, that's fine with me." |
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| We all know how Chicago's Tribune-biased media will only cover the warm and fuzzy Sam-ME Sosa stories. Here you'll find the other side of the story...the truth! |
| The charitable foundation set up by Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa is broke and in disarray less than two years after its high-profile debut, according to Fortune Magazine. Amid board members' allegations of misuse of funds, operations are at a standstill � leaving 7,000 pounds of food, clothing and medical equipment to accumulate $2,000 a month in storage charges in a Miami warehouse since last fall, according to the magazine's April 17 issue. Tax records indicate Sosa, who hit 63 homers last season, has never made a "significant cash contribution" to the foundation, according to Fortune. But in another report given to Latino Legends in Sports, it clearly states that Sosa made a $24,000 contribution in December 1999. The foundation's secretary, Arturo Sandoval, told Fortune that Sosa's sisters owed back rent in a foundation-owned building in the Cubs star's hometown of San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. The foundation, headquartered in Pembroke Pines, Fla., was founded in June 1998 to help provide medical care in San Pedro de Macoris. It has distributed relief to victims of Hurricane Georges. Reached yesterday at his home in Florida, foundation president Bill Chase conceded the organization is in flux as one board member prepares to resign, but said the conflict "has been blown out of proportion." Tenants in the San Pedro de Macoris building, including Sosa's sisters, have been served with eviction notices, said Chase. The amount owed is small, he said, adding, "You're talking pesos, not dollars." Sosa's agent, Adam Katz, could not be reached yesterday. But he told Fortune: "I'm going to go down and clean this thing up. |
| From Latino Sports Legends.com / Fortune Magazine April, 2000 |
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| `I didn`t hit anybody with a bottle,`` he said. ``I swear to God.`` Sosa reported to camp on time Wednesday, along with just about everyone else. The only no-shows left were Ozzie Guillen, who was expected for Thursday`s first full workout, and Mario Brito, who has visa problems in the Dominican Republic and is expected sometime before the summer solstice. Sosa, of course, had been mired in legal matters back home in the Dominican. His ex-wife (or his estranged wife, depending on the venue), according to reports, has accused him in the Dominican of hitting her with a rum bottle, plus other indignities. ``He`s here to play baseball,`` said manager Jeff Torborg. ``That other stuff will be taken care of.`` So while attorneys from both sides try to work out the inevitable settlement, Sosa is in camp, trying to work out his own problems: - Strikeouts, for one. There were 150 of them last season, which put him in Cecil Fielder Land. ``This year in winter ball, I made a lot of contact,`` said Sosa. He was talking about baseball, of course, and his .328 average indicated he succeeded. ``That`s the only thing I had to work on-making contact. The more I make contact, the better it is for me. |
| From The Chicago Tribune (pre-sCrUB days) Feb. 28th, 1991 |
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| During the magical summer of 1998, when Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa battled the Cardinals' Mark McGwire for the single-season home-run record, Sosa did what rich celebrity athletes sometimes do. He set up his own foundation. The timing was fortunate. That fall Hurricane George battered Sosa's native Dominican Republic. "We became famous," says Bill Chase, president of the Sammy Sosa Charitable Foundation. "Everybody wanted to help Sammy and his country." Small donations poured in. "A lot of kids would send their allowance," says Rebecca Polihronis, who coordinates charitable giving for the Cubs. Yet the total was hardly staggering: The foundation disbursed $82,842 in relief supplies, according to its 1998 tax return. Nonetheless, Sosa got credit for bringing attention to the plight of his country. For his civic and charitable acts, Major League Baseball honored him with the Roberto Clemente Man of the Year Award. Today, a year and a half after its high-profile debut, the Sosa Foundation is broke and in disarray. Amid a board member's allegations of misuse of funds, operations are at a standstill. Seven thousand pounds of food, clothing, and medical equipment have been accumulating $2,000-a-month storage charges in a Miami warehouse since last fall. What's more, there's no evidence that Sosa, who's halfway through a four-year, $42.5 million contract, has ever made a significant cash contribution to his own foundation. (Even rival McGwire pitched in $100,000 last year.) It appears that Sosa's foundation was a dog from the start. He established it in June 1998 by donating a three-story office building called 30/30 Plaza (in recognition of his two-time feat of hitting at least 30 home runs and stealing at least 30 bases in a season), which he had built a couple of years earlier. Located in an impoverished neighborhood of San Pedro de Macoris, where Sosa grew up, the property was a money-loser. Many of the tenants that ran businesses from it didn't pay their rents. By handing over the building, appraised at $2.7 million, to his nonprofit, Sosa got a tidy federal tax deduction of at least $1 million. The deadbeat tenants are still there--including two of Sosa's sisters, who run a boutique, a disco, and a beauty shop--but Sosa's off the hook. "Sammy don't want to get involved," says Gordon Skitt, the building manager. "It's the foundation's problem." Financial woes aside, the internal squabble--pitting the foundation's secretary, Arturo Sandoval, against Sosa and other members of the board--threatens the foundation's survival. In a November 1999 memo Sandoval has since shared with the IRS, he informed his fellow directors, Chase and Dana Kaufman, of the back rent the Sosa sisters owed. He also said Sosa took a check for $1,500 from the foundation as a security deposit on an apartment to be used by the nonprofit. But before the foundation could move in, he sold the apartment--and kept the deposit. "Someone has to clarify with Sammy that he cannot take charitable contributions from the United States and directly deposit [them] into his business account in the Dominican Republic," Sandoval summed up. Chase does not dispute those charges. He even admitted to FORTUNE that he once bought a new sports car for Sosa's brother Jose using foundation money. But he responded to Sandoval's allegations by terminating his consulting contract, withholding his last month's pay, and locking him out of foundation headquarters. Sosa did not return a call to his cell phone the day before he left for the Cubs season opener in Japan, but his agent, Adam Katz, says, "I'm going to go down [to Miami] and clean this thing up. I can virtually assure you there's been no impropriety." Not so fast. At the very least, Sosa's setup violates basic standards of philanthropy laid out by the National Charities Information Bureau: A public charity, like Sosa's foundation, should have at least five members on its board to guarantee diversity (Sosa's has three, plus himself); board members shouldn't profit from their affiliation with the charity (Sandoval has earned $4,000 a month as a consultant to the foundation); and the board shouldn't be beholden to special interests (Chase, who once owned a factory in the Dominican Republic, used to pay the young Sosa to shine his shoes; now he lives in a home in Coral Springs, Fla., that Sosa owns. Kaufman, the remaining board member, is Sosa's accountant). The irony is that despite Sosa's selfishness and questionable practices, agencies housed at 30/30 Plaza are doing good work--inoculating children, educating young mothers, and providing dental care. But with the escalating shenanigans inside the Sosa Foundation, the future looks cloudy. In January, Paul Schenkel, a senior technical adviser with the U.S. Agency for International Development's health and population team in the Dominican Republic, sent an e-mail to Chase in which he concluded, "I believe the foundation is at a critical moment. I am convinced that without Sammy's direct involvement the foundation will run out of funds and be forced to terminate a great project." Hey, Sosa, you're up. |
| Sammy Sosa's Foundation Is a Major League Fiasco HURRICANE RELIEF OR TAX RELIEF? By David Whitford, April 2000 Issue |
| "the archive" |