Home Sports Sammy Sosa returns to Chicago, will enter Cubs Hall of Fame in 2025: ‘I’m here and I’m back’

Sammy Sosa returns to Chicago, will enter Cubs Hall of Fame in 2025: ‘I’m here and I’m back’

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The Cubs will induct Sammy Sosa and Derrek Lee into the team's Hall of Fame during the 2025 MLB season. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

The Cubs will induct Sammy Sosa and Derrek Lee into the team’s Hall of Fame during the 2025 MLB season. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

A month after Sammy Sosa released an apology letter for the “mistakes” he made during his MLB career, the Chicago Cubs announced that the slugger enters the team’s Hall of Fame this summer along with former first baseman Derrek Lee.

“I’ve been away for 21 years,” Sosa, 56, said. said on friday during the Cubs fan convention. “I think it was the right time. I really want to continue with the great fans.”

Sosa received a loud ovation when he was introduced and then said it was time to make things right with the organization.

“People say that you grow. That’s what happened to me,” Sosa said. “I think taking the first step to make that statement public, I think it was the right time for me. And the immediate response was incredible. More or less, that’s all I needed. And now the door is open.”

The “mistakes” Sosa mentioned in his apology related to his alleged past use of performance-enhancing drugs. He was suspected of being a PED user during his heyday (from the early 1990s to the early 2000s), although his name was not among the numerous MLB PED users listed in the (in)famous Mitchell Report. But in 2007, the book “Game of Shadows” detailed Sosa’s alleged use of banned substances and his involvement in the Balco scandal.

Despite being the only player in Major League history to hit at least 60 home runs in three different seasons, Sosa spent 10 years on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot before leaving in 2023 and had distanced himself from the Puppies since he left. the team in 2004.

Sosa’s apology letter finally prompted the Cubs to open the door to their former superstar. Team owner Tom Ricketts had insisted in the past that Sosa would not be invited to any team events unless he publicly apologized for his alleged PED use. Other players linked to PEDs, including Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte, have been warmly welcomed by their former teams after similar apologies.

Now that he’s reunited with his old team, Sosa is eager to see what the future holds for him and the Cubs.

“I’m here and I’m back,” Sosa said. “And I’m looking forward to the good things that will happen in the future.”

Another former Cubs great, Ryne Sandberg, was also presenta month after the Hall of Famer announced that his cancer had spread to other organs in his body and that he was ready to receive more treatment.

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