Sosa has something to prove

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Sammy Sosa stopped, partially obscured by the doorway opening to the Rangers' clubhouse. He had seen the mass of bodies -- 30? 40? -- staked out in front of his locker. So, with a little smile, he danced away, toward another door, one with no cameras and no questions. Ron Mahay called out an offer to stand before the gauntlet. But Sosa moved back toward the mass playfully, ready to answer any and all queries.

No need to hide after his first-inning checked-swing bloop into right field provided all the necessary offense on a day the Rangers got their first win for rookie manager Ron Washington. It was Sosa's first home game since returning to the organization that signed him -- on July 30, 1985, three years after the birth of yesterday's starter, Robinson Tejeda -- before sending him off to the White Sox in 1989.

But just because he was welcomed back with cheers doesn't mean he doesn't know what half the fans are thinking. That -- after a year away from the game, after testifying before Congress, after all the speculation and the .221 average with Baltimore in 2005 -- the player they saw run out to right field (a bit slower than usual, he acknowledged) is hardly the player he was.

"The hands is there, my instincts is there," said Sosa, who was 1 for 3 in the Rangers' 2-0 win. "I feel great. Because you know a lot of people say because I took a year off and come back, I'm not going to do what I'm doing. But I'm preparing myself for that. That's the challenge that I have to take to take it to the next level.

"It's not what it is in the past. It's what I am going forward."

After the swing (when he was clearly trying not to swing) handed Sosa his first RBI of the season -- and just his 46th since vacating the Friendly Confines in 2004 -- he was more than pleased to claim complete confidence in his ability, even though he was far from a lock to make the team coming out of spring training.

"I guess it's fair for media and fans to question how well Sammy's going to play," shortstop Michael Young said. "But as far as Sammy's concerned, he looks at himself, he's like, 'Of course I'm going to hit well, I've done it my whole life.' For him it's not even a question -- granted the questions are fair -- but as far as he's concerned, he just laughs those off."

Sosa hardly looks like the player who reached fifth place in baseball history with 588 home runs over a career that spans 18 seasons (not including the lost year of 2006). Smaller, with hair that has silvered in places, Sosa no longer comes across as larger than life. Perhaps it's the absence of an entourage or boom box, both of which became points of contention in his tenure with the Cubs.

But that's what happens when you're a non-roster player who makes the team out of spring training after smoking the ball pitch after pitch, starts the season 1 for 7, and has to prove himself to half the people filling Rangers Ballpark.

"Come to see me in six months when everything's there," Sosa said. "Right now everybody trying to get it together. That's the way it happens. You have to believe in yourself.

"I never doubt myself. That's why I'm here. Believe in yourself, that's one of the things [that] gets you going every day. This is the game. Today you go 0 for 4, tomorrow you hit two home runs."

Sosa will turn 39 in November. He is older, maybe wiser, and ultimately trying to squeeze a few more hits -- perhaps a few more home runs -- out of slowing hands and vanishing talent. Back in Texas, back in baseball.

"I think it's good, man," David Ortiz said. "Sammy's done a lot of things for the game. I think lately in the game a lot of things have been happening. A lot of guys not able to play, out of the game for a lot of reasons. I think a guy like Sammy [has] done a lot of things for the game; being back in the game is good for baseball."

So back in the game he is, with his second hit of the season and an RBI to show for it. And to celebrate?

"Like everybody else," Sosa said. "Go back to the family, have a glass of wine with my wife, and get ready for tomorrow."

Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com.