Sammy Sosa’s highly scripted return to the Chicago Cubs family Thursday was announced with two news releases sent a few minutes apart.
But the reunion was years in the making and finalized shortly after his appearance in September at a Club 400 charity event in Lake in the Hills, sources said.
The animosity between the former Cubs slugger and the Ricketts family that owns the team had subsided somewhat since 2020, and what once seemed like an impossible dream turned into reality Thursday when Chairman Tom Ricketts invited Sosa to the 2025 Cubs Convention.
Next up is entrance into the Cubs Hall of Fame and a return to Wrigley Field, the home of his greatest triumphs … and some embarrassing, cork-related moments as well.
So why now?
According to Brian McRae, a former Cubs teammate who kept in touch with Sosa, the timing was just right to end this long, painful divorce.
“In talking to him a little bit over the last couple years, it was something that had weighed on his mind,” McRae said. “He didn’t want to not be welcomed back into the fold, and they were working behind the scenes for a while to get something done that would appease everybody, or at least (the Cubs’) decision-makers.”
A Christmas miracle appeared in the form of Sosa’s “apology” letter, which alluded to his “mistakes” of taking performance-enhancing drugs to “recover from injuries in an effort to keep my strength up.” It made no mention of steroids but was sufficient enough for Ricketts, who previously had demanded Sosa apologize for cheating before the organization would welcome him back.
Ricketts clearly has tired of the long-running Sosa debate since his family bought the team in 2009, only five years after Sosa’s walkout on the final day of the 2004 season. That walkout was followed by the infamous incident in which a mystery player — or players — destroyed Sosa’s iconic boom box. And when Sosa claimed he didn’t walk out before the game and had permission to leave from manager Dusty Baker, the Cubs revealed they had video of him leaving the parking lot. Sosa told the Chicago Tribune in spring training of 2005 that the team had “destroyed” his reputation.
The former Cubs owners, Tribune Co., subsequently exiled Sosa, and the standoff continued with the Rickettses. But 20 years after it unraveled, the relationship finally appears to have been mended, even as the boom-box saga remains one of Chicago’s great unsolved mysteries.
Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa leaps as he and fans watch his 60th home run fly through the air against the Brewers on Sept. 18, 1999, at Wrigley Field. (John Lee/Chicago Tribune)
All’s well that ends well?
We’ll see. One former Cub declined to comment on Sosa’s return, saying: “What is he apologizing for? He hasn’t said.”
Some believe it’s a matter of financial convenience, meaning Sosa will be able to make more money in signings and appearances with an official tie-in to the Cubs, and the Cubs will find ways to make revenue by marketing Sosa.
The Cubs Hall of Fame announcement for 2025 is scheduled for the opening of the Cubs Convention on Jan. 17, and if he attends, Sosa will quickly find out whether he’s still loved. The guess here is that most fans will embrace him, though surely there will be some boos.
McRae plans to attend the convention along with some of Sosa’s other former teammates. Ryne Sandberg and Mark Grace are among those also scheduled to attend. McRae said he doesn’t know how some former teammates will react, especially ones who have made a point to say they played the game the so-called “right way.”
Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa does a hero’s trot through the Wrigley Field outfield during a ceremony to honor him during his 66-home run season on Sept. 20, 1998. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune)
But he believes enough time has passed, and the ones who don’t approve of Sosa’s alleged PED use will probably keep it to themselves. Sosa will be pulled in so many directions, he might not have time for storytelling with old teammates.
“I don’t think guys are going to be able to have that much conversations with him in Chicago, at least not like I did at the Super Bowl,” McRae said of a previous encounter. “If he goes, it will be a different feel to the Cubs Convention, definitely. It’s already crazy to begin with, and that will turn it up a couple notches.”
Carlos Zambrano, who also keeps in touch with Sosa, told me in 2023 that he told Sosa to “do whatever it takes to get back.” Zambrano’s return to the convention after a long absence reminded him of how much he missed Chicago and Cubs fans.
“Hey, we all make mistakes,” Zambrano said. “I made mistakes. It’d be good for Sammy to come and say ‘I apologize’ for whatever he did.”
Baseball has a tendency to forgive and forget, unless you’re Pete Rose or Shoeless Joe Jackson.
Yet Sosa had been estranged from the Cubs for two long decades, waiting in vain for an unconditional pardon. Part of it was due to his stubbornness, and part of it was Ricketts’ refusal to put the past in the rearview mirror, as several organizations have done with their players tainted by steroid accusations.
Manny Ramirez was welcomed back in Cleveland, as was Barry Bonds in San Francisco and Mark McGwire in St. Louis. Alex Rodriguez is a national baseball analyst for Fox Sports. The stigma of PED use has conspired to keep those greats out of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but it hasn’t been a deal-breaker in many other areas.
“He’s like one of the last guys from that era that had a fallout with his team that has started the process of mending,” McRae said. “It’ll be nice to see him back at Wrigley Field at some point again. Whatever your thoughts are on Sammy, good, bad or indifferent, there are Cubs fans today that will be lifelong Cubs fans, and they started by watching Sammy.
“And he made the team a lot of money, and he made the league a lot of money. He did a lot for baseball in Chicago and put a spotlight on the city when he was there. You can’t dispute that.”
Anyone who watched Sosa in the late 1990s and early 2000s can attest to that. Other than Michael Jordan, no Chicago athlete was as prominent as Sosa was during the 1998 home run race with McGwire.
Now that his exile appears to be over, and Sosa has received absolution for his alleged baseball crimes, the reconciliation process begins.
It’s a long way from here to building a statue outside Wrigley Field.
Maybe the Cubs can start by buying Sosa a new boom box.
