- Sosa and the Cubs have been at odds since he left the North Side in 2004.
- DailyMail.com provides the latest international sports news.
Sammy Sosa expected some softball questions when he spoke with veteran Chicago sportscaster Lou Canellis at a signing in the Windy City on Friday. Instead, the estranged former Cubs slugger quickly recalled the steroid scandal that led to his departure from Chicago.
—Do you acknowledge the fact that maybe you took steroids? Fox 32 Canellis Sosa asked, visibly surprised.
“Like I said, this is… um… not a question I expected from you,” Sosa, 55, said.
Sosa, the Cubs’ all-time record holder with 545 home runs, remains shut out on the North Side. Slammin’ Sammy was banished by the Cubs and traded to Baltimore after he arrived late to the 2004 finals at Wrigley and left early. Additionally, he and others accused of steroid cheating, such as Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, were banned from the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America for 10 years, leaving them with limited opportunities to be enshrined in Cooperstown in the future.
Naturally, this has left some lingering friction with the Cubs, who have neglected to honor Sosa as they have other former All-Stars.
Sammy Sosa was shocked when Chicago reporters asked him about his alleged steroid use.
Sosa (left) laughs with rival Mark McGwire in 1998 before the two became scandalized.
“I’m a mature man,” Sosa told Canellis when he was first asked about the Cubs at the autograph convention. ‘I think it’s a possibility that we could do that.
‘I am open. I do not have any problem with that. Like I said, I had a lot of misunderstandings in the past. I’m a real man, I feel great. So I admit my mistake, so hey, why not?
That’s when Canellis saw an opportunity to ask Sosa about his steroid scandal.
“This is not an interview where I’m actually going to sit down and do that article to you right now,” Sosa said. But like I said, I feel great. Let’s see what happens.’
Bruce Levine, who covers the Cubs for 670 the Score, reported shortly afterward that “there have been no conversations between Chicago Cubs top officials and Sammy Sosa about returning to Cub Nation.”
Sosa runs under a banner hanging in the stands while taking a lap around Wrigley Field in 1998.
Cubs president Tom Ricketts has been hesitant to honor Sosa as he has other players.
“I just want to be thoughtful about it and do it in a way that is respectful to both the people who loved Sammy as a player, as I did, and the people who also respect the game, and I think there’s a balance to that in somewhere”. and maybe we’ll find it at some point,” Ricketts said in 2023.
Last year, the Cubs revealed plans to build a statue for Ryne Sandberg, who was sympathetic to the club’s position on Sosa.
“You have to respect the game and play it the right way,” Sandberg said. ‘There was a little problem with the way Sammy played the game. If that is an obstacle, then it is an obstacle.”
