Card of the Moment III

This moment's 1999 Topps Gold Label card is Sammy Sosa in his Cubs heyday. This is a good opportunity to use the old Dictionary (or Dictionary.com) and look up Heyday: "the stage or period of greatest vigor, strength, success, etc.; prime." Hmmm, greatest vigor and strength. Do you think this may apply to Sammy and what he was doing at the time to improve his performance? As the Church Lady used to say, "mmmmm, Could be!"

In any event, I love these cards. They are Bowman's Best before Bowman's Best. This is the Class 1 version of the card. It is from the year after he hit 66 home runs and "endeared himself to America." I remember those heady days when McGwire and Sosa were chasing Maris' record, and they made baseball fun again, before heading into the deep steroid-laced funk that followed. Seeing McGwire bear hug Sosa was very cool.
As for his Hall of Fame credentials, at this point in his career, they are not very impressive considering he was an average outfielder. 273 HR's is pretty good, but 800 RBI's is not great considering how many HR's he did hit. 158 RBI's in one season is way up there, though.

If you ask me, I would say that he is close but not in. He may get in sometime if the steroids era looks softer and rosier at some point in the future, but don't count on it happening any time soon.