Sosa admirer gets dose up close

PITTSBURGH -- Beauty resides in the eye of the beholder:
UMario Lemieux snapping a wristshot past a startled goalie from 15 feet out.
UBartolo Colon registering 98 mph on the Jacobs Field scoreboard.
UThe courage and grace of Boardman's Ashlee Russo and Poland's Jamie Dunn driving to the basket against bigger, stronger defenders.
UJerome Bettis breaking loose for a 12-yard pickup in the first quarter at Heinz Field.
USammy Sosa's swing.
Year in and year out, the gifted Cubs slugger continues to dazzle us, from his running out to right field to start games at Wrigley Field to his memorable blasts.
Six years ago
My first Sosa home run experience came six years ago on the first visit to Wrigley Field. In the bottom of the first inning, I squinted through the videocamera lens to watch Sosa's powerful swing send a ball over the left-field fence. I looked up and just caught a glance of the ball sailing over the fence.
Two years later, in the memorable summer of 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sosa won back many baseball fans lost in the 1994 strike, Sosa's Cubs came to Three Rivers Stadium on Labor Day weekend. In the Saturday game, Sosa connected for home run number 58 over the right-field fence to earn a standing ovation.
In 1999, my wife and I sat amazed in Wrigley Field box seats on a hot August afternoon as Sosa connected for Nos. 48 and 49 in back-to-back at-bats. The Rockies drilled the Cubs that day, but no one in the sellout crowd cared: Sammy homered twice and everyone went home happy.
So imagine then how tempting this combination is to a Sosa admirer: A Friday evening off, fireworks night at PNC Park and the second-place Pirates battling the Cubs.
Talk about beauty.
Sammy, the sequel
My favorite teen and five of her friends piled into the family truckster for our date with Sammy.
As you can imagine, put six high school juniors together in the spring and conversation will center on the most important event of the spring: the prom. Specifically, who's going, who needs a date, who's available, who's cute.
But with two varsity softball players, two varsity basketball players, a statistician and a sportswriter present, talk shifted to sports and college visits/scholarships once when we settled into our left-field upperdeck seats (the perfect location for the Pirates' spectacular fireworks shows).
The game motored along. Sosa grounded out and walked in his first two at-bats, then came to the plate in the top of the sixth inning with a 2-2 score.
Pirates starter Dave Williams, who tied the game with his solo homer, threw three balls to Sosa.
Before I could finish the question "Think he has the green light to swing on 3-0," Sosa's powerful arms launched the most majestic homer in the short history of PNC Park, skyrocketing the ball over the center-field bullpen onto the concrete porch near the Allegheny River. The Pirates announced the distance as 484 feet.
Ice cream stop
The teens celebrated with a seventh-inning stretch to the Sweet Spot ice cream stand behind home plate and a climb back to the sky seats. Because the escalators were all moving down, they had to walk back up using the "rotundra" ramp.
They made a friend by sharing ice cream with the 3-year-old seated in the row in front.
They studied a bit too intently the seven shirtless college-age lads who had the letters P-I-R-A-T-E-S on their chests.
They posed for pictures next to the Willie Stargell statue and sampled Quaker Steak & amp; Lube wings and barbecued chicken. And they marveled at the end of the night as the sky was filled with magnificent colors and booms.
Fireworks, baseball and Sammy Sosa -- it just doesn't get much better than that. Except maybe if the Pirates had won.
XTom Williams is a sportswriter with The Vindicator. Write him at williams@vindy.com.