Yes, This Is Sammy Sosa

Despite lightened skin, 'he's not trying to be Michael Jackson'

(NEWSER) - Retired slugger Sammy Sosa comes off as a bit vain, but he isn't bleaching his skin or "trying to be Michael Jackson," a friend says of the photos that took the sports blogosphere by storm last week. "He can't believe it is such a big deal." The friend, like Sosa a former Cubs employee, tells the Chicago Tribune he's just "going through a rejuvenation process for his skin. Women have it all of the time." More»

Sosa says he's not purposely bleaching his skin

(NEWSER) - Sammy Sosa attributes his newly lightened skin to three things: facial cream, all those baseball games he played out in the sun, and, of course, those pesky camera flashes, which “made my skin look lighter” at an event last week, he tells Univision. He wouldn’t divulge the name of the cream, but says he is in talks to market it, the New York Daily News reports. More»

Unsealed search warrants reveal stash of drugs

(AP) - Michael Jackson's house contained large quantities of general anesthetic and dozens of tubes of skin-whitening cream, unsealed search warrants show. Cops found eleven containers of propofol—some enough to serve as general anesthetic for several hours—in a closet where Dr. Conrad Murray told them he had stashed them in a medical bag. A bodyguard has said Murray interrupted CPR on Jackson to throw drug vials and an IV line into such a bag. More»

White patch may be vitiligo

(NEWSER) - Photos of Michael Jackson's children vacationing in Hawaii have revealed a strange patch of white skin under the right arm of oldest son Prince Michael, indicating that the boy may be suffering from the same skin-lightening condition as his father. Michael Jackson, who was often accused of bleaching his skin to appear whiter, revealed in an interview that he was being treated for vitiligo, which left him with patches of de-pigmented skin. A dermatologist and head of the National Vitiligo Foundation who studied recent photos of Prince Michael, 13, said the teen appears to be suffering from the condition. More»

(NEWSER) - Bad news for Sammy Sosa's Hall of Fame hopes: The Cubs slugger is among the players who tested positive for doping in 2003, the New York Times reports. The retired Sosa, sixth on the all-time homer list, has long been suspected of taking steroids but has never admitted it. The new development, courtesy of unnamed lawyers familiar with the 2003 results, is the first time he's been linked to a positive test. More»