When Sammy Sosa hired an interpreter for his steroid use trial despite his fluency in English

Back in 2006, Sammy Sosa reasoned how his Dominican Republic nationality was the reason for him to use an interpreter for his steroid use trial despite being fluent in the English language. Sosa was part of select players who had been called up in a congressional hearing against MLB's use of Performance Enhancing Drugs.

Sammy Sosa was one of the most prolific hitters in the league in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Him, along with Mark McGwire, regularly chased Roger Maris' single-season record for most home runs. He is also the only player to have hit 60 or more home runs in a single season three times, which he accomplished in 1998, 1999 and 2001. However, he only led the league with the most homers in 2000 and 2002 with 50 and 49, respectively.

After Jose Canseco released his book "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big," suspicion started to grow over baseball's use of steroids. After the nutrition center BALCO was accused of dealing drugs to baseball players, a congressional hearing was called.

Many top players, including Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Curt Schilling were summoned on March 17, 2005, to testify in front of Congress (Schilling was summoned because of his outspoken opposition to the use of PEDs). There Sammy Sosa's use of an interpreter even though he was fluent in English was frowned upon by some. He defended himself by saying:

"The reason why I have an interpreter is because I'm not from United States, I'm from Dominican Republic. For myself to go out there and get up in front of the jury, I had to be very well known what I'm gonna say — that's another part that people don't know."

Sammy Sosa further argued how he had picked up English "from the streets" of America

Sammy Sosa further stated that he had learnt English from the streets and how he had never studied in a school in America. It was thus justified for him to use an interpreter during the trials:

"I speak the language because I just learned it on the street. I never went to school here in America to learn the language very well, so no question when you gonna go to a jury like that, you're not gonna go the war without bullets. You have to have somebody to represent you that's there or everywhere you go."

Sammy Sosa, like others, denied any use of PEDs in the hearings. However, a few years later his name appeared in the Mitchell Report, wherein a list of players was leaked who had tested positive for the use of steroids and PEDs around 2003. Post retirement, his name was up for balloting in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but he never fulfilled the criteria in 10 years of selection.