Sosa’s whitened skin moves into spotlight

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Sammy Sosa arrives at the Latin Recording Academy Person of The Year event in honor of Juan Gabriel on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009, in Las Vegas. Sosa says a cosmetic cream he uses to soften his skin is the reason for his lighter skin tone. Sosa says he has been using the cream for a long time, and combined with bright TV lights, it made his face look whiter than it really is. (AP Photo/Eric Jamison)

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Happy 41st birthday, Sammy Sosa, or however old you really are.

We send only our best wishes for you to stay young long after the tubes of anti-aging cream are squeezed dry.

That’s what all this silliness is about, folks – a harmlessly vain Sosa feeling as equipped as Kevin Gregg for the late inning of life.

Years in baseball’s spotlight damaged Sosa’s ego more than his skin. The skin-lightening product Sosa is believed to be putting on his face twice a day is best known throughout the United Kingdom for its anti-aging effects.

So the creepy picture of Sosa at the Latin Grammys looking like the latest addition to Madame Tussauds wax museum has little to do with too much day baseball at Wrigley Field. Sosa’s explanation to a Hispanic TV show that he needs the special cream to combat “playing at 1:20 p.m. in Chicago for 19 years,” frankly seems, um, beyond the pale.

Ever see Ernie Banks, who played 2,528 games as a Cub, looking like a bleacher bum?

Sosa’s actual Cubs tenure lasted 13 years, but he has a history with inflated numbers. Anyway, the thing we remember most about Sosa’s skin was that it could be pretty thin.

In fairness, did Sosa roaming the outfield for 917 career games at Wrigley expose him to enough sunlight damage that requires skin rejuvenation? Sure, professional dermatologists say. Any beer vendor probably can relate.

“Years of chronic sun exposure and all the ultraviolet rays could have made his face darker than the rest of his body and made him feel uncomfortable,” said Dr. Melanye Maclin, a noted dermatologist in Maryland who grew up on the South Side.

Maclin hadn’t seen the Sosa photo widely distributed around the Internet until Wednesday. Her first reaction when it popped onto her computer screen was: “Wow!” As a medical professional who appears on the Steve Harvey radio show and was featured in the Chris Rock movie, “Good Hair,” Maclin recognized a popular culture symptom.

“Making the skin lighter is becoming the ‘it’ thing to do for people of color,” Maclin said.

Thus we have Sosa the former slugger cast in his post-career role of light hitter.

The sight has been a source of humor, such as when comedian George Lopez put pictures on two bottles of beer and said, “Sammy Sosa and Sammy Sosa Light. Tastes great, less threatening.”

It also has been the source of scathing social criticism, such as the blogger who viewed Sosa’s lighter face as a sign of deep-seated feelings of self-loathing prevalent in the Dominican Republic. Another critic interpreting the racial overtones auctioned off Sosa’s blackness on eBay.

“People want to run with that idea, but there’s too much unknown to say that,” said Brian McRae, a former Cubs teammate who has been critical of Sosa in the past. “I just looked at it as vanity. What’s the difference in Sammy doing that and a woman getting plastic surgery? Some of the biggest stars and celebrities also are some of the most insecure people in the world.”

If Sosa says he’s not trying to look like Michael Jackson, that’s good enough for McRae. But cynics who remember the way Sosa played right field at the end of his career may point out it’s not the first time he has resembled Jackson.

For a time, both also wore a glove on their left hand for no apparent reason.

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