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Sammy Sosa turning white?

BEFORE AND AFTER — 2003 Sammy Sosa (above) looks dramatically different than the Sammy Sosa photographed Wednesday at an event in Las Vegas. A friend said Sosa’s light skin is due to a skin treatment. (Getty Images)

What’s going on with Sammy Sosa’s face?

The former Cubs slugger’s skin looks startlingly lighter in photographs that have been splashed around the Internet since Friday, but Sosa’s people are claiming the dramatic change is the result of a “skin rejuvination” treatment.

The photos, taken at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino Wednesday, have been widely circulated on the Internet. A friend told the Chicago Tribune Sosa the change is a side effect from a skin treatment.

“He’s not trying to be Michael Jackson,” former Cubs employee Rebecca Polihronis, who talks frequently with Sosa, told the Tribune.

“He is going through a rejuvenation process for his skin. 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.

“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,'” Polihronis told the paper.

Sosa has been accused of taking steroids, but has always denied it.