Sammy Sosa is now said to have “bleached skin” – but this is a story blown out of proportion, he explained. It began with his recent appearance at the Grammy Latino Awards. He looked much more pale than usual, a contrast not far from what people saw in Michael Jackson. But, Sosa had a clear explanation for the new look.

“I spent many years playing at 1:20 p.m. in Chicago for 19 years,” he said in a recent interview on the Univision show First Impact. “You know that the skin gets damaged, and so what I did, now that I’m not playing, not getting so much sun, well, I have a cream that I apply before going to sleep and it lightens my face a bit.”

Sosa, often laughing during the interview, added that media lights and camera flashes are also making him look lighter than he is, even with the cream, which he obtained in Europe.

Certainly he wasn’t trying to resemble Michael Jackson – a comparison that’s been made. To him, all the varied speculation seems almost like comedy. No matter what, Sosa wasn’t trying to reverse his original color.

“I’m not a racist, I’m not like that,” he said. “I’m a person that lives a happy life, and I want people to calm down and want them to know the truth, that I didn’t do this with that intention.”

It’s now known that Michael Jackson seemed to have bleached skin for a reason: vitiligo, a natural condition that destroys pigment and creates white spots. The condition is rare.

The ultra-pale tone of Jackson’s later years came from doctor-administered creams intended to even out his appearance, which was made uneven by vitiligo. This situation was no sure fault of Jackson’s, though it came during multiple bouts of plastic surgery that further boosted a bizarre appearance.

Sosa, whose case resembles Jackson’s in no way at all, is dealing only with a temporary change.

RELATED STORIES:

• More on facial rejuvenation!