DARE TO DREAM BIG: From Shoeshine Boy to Celebrated Sports Hero

Imagine This: You’re born in the Dominican Republic, the fifth of seven children, and you live in a one-bedroom house with dirt floors and no indoor plumbing.

 You learn a strong work ethic from your father and a deep sense of honesty from your mother. Unfortunately, your father dies when you’re seven, and now everyone in the family has to work.

 Your mother cooks and washes clothes for people while you and your brothers and sisters wash cars, sell fruit on the street, and shine shoes. Even with everyone in the family working, times are very hard, and sometimes there’s enough food for only one meal a day.

 The difference between eating and not eating often depends upon which shoeshine boy reaches a tourist first, and many times you and the other kids who shine shoes have to literally fight for your customers.

 One day when you’re twelve, you’re the first shoeshine boy to reach a tourist named Bill Chase. Bill Chase is a U.S citizen who owns a local shoe factory, and he is so impressed by your strong work ethic and determination that he hires you and your brothers to sweep floors and clean the machinery at his factory.

 Baseball is the most popular sport in the Dominican Republic, and you and the other neighborhood kids make your own baseball equipment from cardboard boxes and burlap bags. You love baseball and you play as much as you can, whenever you can!

 When you’re thirteen, Bill Chase buys you your first real baseball glove, and you and your family are treated like part of Bill’s own family.

 Even though you love school, you decide to drop out in the eighth grade, so that you can work full time to help provide for your family.

 Over the next few years, people begin to recognize your baseball talent and, when you’re fifteen, the Philadelphia Phillies offer you a contract to play in the States on one of their farm teams. The contract with the Phillies is canceled because baseball officials feel you’re too young, but a year later, the Texas Rangers offer you a professional contract, and you’re given another chance to pursue your dream of a professional baseball career.

 When you arrive in the United States, there are new challenges to face: the problems of racism and drugs. You manage to avoid both these problems, but your move to the States is still very difficult for you because you know very little English and you miss your close-knit family.

 You’re used to working hard and you work hard on both your fielding and your hitting. In 1989 you’re traded to the Chicago White Sox, and in 1992, you’re traded again. This time to the Chicago Cubs where the batting coach, Billy Williams, helps you improve your batting.

 You start your 1993 season strong and you just keep improving. A wrist injury in 1996 disables you for part of the season, but in 1997, you come back stronger than ever—-getting your one thousandth base hit and your two hundredth home run.

 You lead the Cubs to the playoffs in 1998 and are voted the National League’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). You and Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals also make baseball history that year when you break Roger Maris’s record of 61 homeruns in a single season.

 In 1999, you become the first player in baseball history to hit sixty home runs in back-to-back seasons, and in 2001, you become the first player in history to surpass sixty home runs three times.

 You’re traded to the Baltimore Orioles in 2005 and end your illustrious career in 2007 with the organization where it all started, the Texas Rangers. In spite of some controversial issues in your later years, you have come a long way and are still considered a sports hero, both in the States and in the Dominican Republic.

                                                     “My life is a celebration of faith.”

                                                             Sammy Sosa (1968-    )

 Excerpted from Dare to Dream!: 25 Extraordinary Lives by Sandra McLeod Humphrey

 For More about Sammy Sosa:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs95NnrCD0o

 Giving Back:  In 1998, he created the Sammy Sosa Foundation, an organization that raises funds for underprivileged children both in the Chicago area and in the Dominican Republic.

 Did you know that Sammy Sosa’s first baseball glove was made from an inside-out milk carton.

 Something to Think about:  How do you think the strong work ethic Sammy Sosa learned as a young boy helped him in the Major Leagues?

Willoughby and I hope you enjoyed this week’s true story and will be back next week for another story to inspire you to DARE TO DREAM BIG!