It's not vitiligo or side-effects from too many steroids. And our eyes are not deceiving us. Dominican baseball legend Sammy Sosa made his debut as a white man at last week's Latin Grammy Awards and we couldn't be more confused. The Chicago Tribune spoke to a Cubs employee and friend of Sosa, who claims the athlete's change in skin pigmentation is simply a result of a beauty treatment:

"He is going through a rejuvenation process for his skin," [Rebecca] Polihronis said. "Women have it all of the time. He was surprised he came out looking so white. I thought it was a body double. Part of (the photo appearance) is just the lighting. "He is in the middle of doing a cleansing process to his skin. The picture is deceiving. He said, 'If you saw me in person, you would be surprised. When you see me in person, it is not going to seem like the picture...He was doing a dermatological skin process after years and years (of playing baseball) in the sun," Polihronis said. "It did come out looking weird (in the picture)."

We know that "skin rejuvenation" is a vague term that could refer to any number of treatments. And it could certainly be true that he was simply trying to correct hyper pigmentation spots on his skin through a skin lightening treatment that went a bit awry. It's just that when you add the green contacts and slicked hair on top of the extremely light skin, we can't help but worry that Sosa is having some sort of identity crisis. We're worried that the white skin was the goal, and not just some freaky accident. 

What do you think about Sosa's transformation? Do you think it's simply the result of a common beauty treatment and we shouldn't worry about it? Or do you think deeper, racial issues are at play? We'd love to hear your thoughts.