What happened to Sammy Sosa’s skin? Here’s why the baseball legend looks so different

Baseball legend Sammy Sosa has once again found himself at the center of attention.

This time, it’s for the color of his skin.

Dominican sports journalist Franklin Mirabal shared a few photos of Sosa with light skin in Paris just a few days before his 49th birthday on Sunday.

The Internet freaked out, wondering what happened to the retired Haitian-Dominican baseball player.

But this wasn’t the first time the world saw Sosa with lighter skin. Sosa made an appearance on ESPN in July that shook up the Internet.

This week, rapper T.I. told TMZ that Sosa’s light skin is the result of bleaching.

In 2009, Sosa’s skin started to appear lighter and people speculated that it was either because of a skin disease, skin bleaching, or an unfortunate byproduct from steroid use, ESPN reports. Sosa tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug in 2003.

But Sosa told Univision reporters that his light skin was caused by a cosmetic cream, ESPN reports.

"It's a cream that I have, that I use to soften [my skin], but has bleached me some,” Sosa said. “I'm not a racist, I live my life happily.”

According to a recent market report, the skin bleaching industry is booming in the United States and sales are expected to reach $31.2 billion by 2024, triple the amount reached in 2015.

This story was originally published November 14, 2017 at 9:52 AM with the headline "What happened to Sammy Sosa’s skin? Here’s why the baseball legend looks so different."