On Saturday Sammy Sosa hit an opposite-field home run in a 7-2 Baltimore victory over Colorado for the 583rd of his career, tying fellow "savior of the game" Mark McGwire in the process.

In case, you have lived under a rock for the last decade, after two strike-shortened seasons in 1994-95, including one lost World Series, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were locked in a dogfight for the NL home run crown. Both eventually broke the single-season home run record. McGwrire reached the then-ungodly total of 70, while Sosa had to settle for one of the more ludicrously misguided encomiums in baseball history, the NL MVP award.

Now, Sosa and McGwire again meet in an odd confluence at the number six spot of all time. Sosa also is just four home runs away from sole position of the number five spot. Keep in mind that he's had five in the last 25 games.

Given that Sosa is 36 and, even though he projects to 21 homers this season, it would be the fourth straight year in which his home run totals have decreased (from 64 in 2001). Does he have enough in the tank to make a run at Willie Mays' 660 in fourth place? Could he be the fourth man to 700? Or will Sosa and McGwire's meeting at 583 be symbolic of Sosa's sudden decline a la McGwire in 2001?

Let's look at similar batters and see what they have to tell us. I took a look at every batter who hit between twenty and twenty-five home runs at the age of 36 and then looked at their career totals after that year. This is what I found:

On average these players had 48 home runs left in the tank. That would leave Sosa 17 shy of Mays. Of course, Sosa may follow the Carlton Fisk route (146 post-36 homers) putting him at 741, in earshot of Aaron. Wouldn't it be the ultimate irony if Sosa eventually passed Bonds and Ruth? Though I think it's unlikely that he'll pass anyone but Frank Robinson at this stage.