Sammy Sosa's New Skin Color Explained

On Sunday night, MLB and Chicago Cubs fans everywhere will be able to tune in and catch the premiere of 'Long Gone Summer,' which highlights the epic home-run battle between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire in 1998. Despite falling short in that HR race, Sosa remains a baseball legend for his incredible career, no matter how tainted it is by steroids.

However, fans have noticed that ever since his retirement, he looks like a completely different person, with the change in his skin tone standing out. So, what exactly happened to Slammin' Sammy's skin color?

During an interview with Univision in 2009, the Dominican slugger told the Spanish-language outlet he started using a bleaching cream to try and whiten his skin. He ended up using it for an extended period of time, and often, which caused the color to change so much.

Sosa has been criticized countless times for his change in appearance, but has remained adamant that he likes the way he looks and doesn't pay attention to his haters.

"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," Sosa told NBC Sports Chicago in 2018.

None of this haters can take away from Sosa's brilliant playing days with Chicago, which of course included his 66 blasts in '98. Corked bats and steroids played a role in his career, but it doesn't mean that season wasn't still exciting.