"You have to enjoy it. It is not going to happen every year, so this is the year that it is happening and we have got to go out there and enjoy it"
About this Quote
The subtext is scarcity. “It is not going to happen every year” acknowledges how thin the margins are in elite sports: health, timing, teammates, luck, and the league’s shifting competitive landscape. Even superstars don’t get to script their own opportunities. By naming that blunt reality, Sosa gives his teammates permission to feel the stakes without being swallowed by them.
Then he pivots: “this is the year that it is happening.” That phrasing is almost talismanic, the kind of present-tense certainty athletes use to block out the million ways a season can sour. It’s less prediction than protective framing: treat the moment as real, now, and worthy.
In context, it also reads like an image-management move from a player who became a symbol of spectacle. Sosa’s public persona thrived on big moments; here he’s trying to keep the big moment from becoming a burden. Enjoyment becomes both rallying cry and psychological defense, a way to turn history’s weight into fuel instead of friction.
Quote Details
| Topic | Live in the Moment |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: HOME RUN CHASE press conference (Sammy Sosa, 1998)
Evidence:
You have to enjoy it. It is not going to happen every year, so this is the year that it is happening and we have got to go out there and enjoy it. (September 7, 1998 transcript). The earliest primary-source hit I found is an ASAP Sports transcript of a 'HOME RUN CHASE' press conference/interview with Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa dated September 7, 1998. Search results show the quote in that transcript, which makes this a primary interview source rather than a later quote-compilation entry. Later secondary quote sites such as Baseball Almanac and AZQuotes repeat the wording, but they are not original publications. I could not verify a printed page number because this appears to be an online transcript rather than a book or paginated article. |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Sosa, Sammy. (2026, March 7). You have to enjoy it. It is not going to happen every year, so this is the year that it is happening and we have got to go out there and enjoy it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-have-to-enjoy-it-it-is-not-going-to-happen-163131/
Chicago Style
Sosa, Sammy. "You have to enjoy it. It is not going to happen every year, so this is the year that it is happening and we have got to go out there and enjoy it." FixQuotes. March 7, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-have-to-enjoy-it-it-is-not-going-to-happen-163131/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"You have to enjoy it. It is not going to happen every year, so this is the year that it is happening and we have got to go out there and enjoy it." FixQuotes, 7 Mar. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-have-to-enjoy-it-it-is-not-going-to-happen-163131/. Accessed 24 Mar. 2026.






