In a most benevolent gesture, Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts has invited the most prolific home run hitter in franchise history, the man who sold more tickets to Wrigley Field than the beer and the ivy, to the team’s fan convention next month.
The Cubs, of course, sell tickets to their convention.
What’s next, they invite Sosa back to Wrigley Field and then jack up the prices for the occasion?
Well, yeah, that should happen, too.
GO DEEPER
Sammy Sosa acknowledges ‘mistakes,’ moves closer to reunion with Cubs
The reaction from Cubs fans, the people who really matter in this story, will be incredible when Sosa returns to the fold. Imagine the cheers when he walks out to the mound to throw out a first pitch this summer as highlights of his exploits play on the videoboard.
Sosa hit 545 of his 609 career home runs in a Cubs uniform but left the team under a cloud after the 2004 season.
That was 20 years ago. What fans remember now is how he deposited all those home runs on Waveland Avenue and how happy he made them in 1998, when he hit 66 and sparred with Mark McGwire. That home run chase isn’t looked at the same way anymore, but the memories of its excitement remain.
Slammin’ Sammy Sosa was so fun to watch 🤩 pic.twitter.com/P3yZyFpaYl
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) December 19, 2024
Sosa’s true legacy is how much money he made for the Cubs. He put butts in seats, beers in hands and money in bank accounts.
No one person, not even Harry Caray or Theo Epstein, made more money for the Cubs than Sosa, who singlehandedly made Wrigley Field the place to be for years while he was clubbing dingers (presumably with the help of some off-label Flintstones vitamins) in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
On Thursday, the long-awaited rapprochement between Sosa and the Cubs happened via press release. Sosa released a letter that included the word “apologize” and the Cubs released one accepting it.
“I left it all on the field for the Cubs and Cubs fans because I wanted to win and make the fans happy,” Sosa wrote. “I understand why some players in my era don’t always get the recognition that our stats deserve.
“There were times I did whatever I could to recover from injuries in an effort to keep my strength up to perform over 162 games. I never broke any laws, but in hindsight, I made mistakes and I apologize.”
A statement and an apology from Sammy Sosa: pic.twitter.com/jthuuULVrh
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) December 19, 2024
“We appreciate Sammy releasing his statement and for reaching out,” Ricketts said in a statement. “No one played harder or wanted to win more. Nobody’s perfect but we never doubted his passion for the game and the Cubs.
“It is an understatement to say that Sammy is a fan favorite. We plan on inviting him to the 2025 Cubs Convention and, while it is short notice, we hope that he can attend. We are all ready to move forward together.”
And since it’s apology season, maybe Ricketts can say sorry for a few things. Not ponying up to sign Bryce Harper as a free agent would be a start. I have some ideas for apology subjects for other members of his family. While we’re at it, the Cubs can give a mea culpa for the Tribune Company for accepting all that money generated by Sosa.
The longest, dumbest ongoing storyline in Chicago — outside of, you know, all the Bears stuff and everything Jerry Reinsdorf-related — can now end.
No one is sure why Ricketts — whose family bought the team in 2009, five years after Sosa last played for the Cubs — had this weird obsession with Sosa apologizing for using performance-enhancing drugs in the steroid era as a condition to welcoming him back, but I’m glad we can stop talking about it.
In his apology letter, Sosa stopped short of using words like “steroids” or “PEDs” and who really cares? He was never caught — he was named in a 2009 New York Times story about players testing positive in 2003 — but given what we know about the steroid era, no one really needs a signed affidavit.
Sosa’s supposed steroid usage was a hot story for a long time — remember when Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly asked him to take a urine test? — but the steroid era is now just accepted as an unfortunate part of baseball history. Baseball Hall of Fame voters have largely excluded suspected or known steroid users from Cooperstown, and though I don’t necessarily agree with that stance, that’s the price these players are paying for their baseball sins and the ones of their era.
But most of those athletes have been welcomed back to their teams and play a public role in the game, from broadcasting to marketing. Sosa was the exception. Certainly, part of that was his fault. Anyone who dealt with Sosa knows he wasn’t always the easiest guy to deal with. His ego could be as big as his biceps.
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The Cubs and Sosa had tried mending the relationship before — including a deal that required him to do an interview with a local radio show — but it takes two to make it happen. So while I’m sure Sosa could be a pain, Ricketts could have made this story go away years ago, but it lingered on and had grown tiresome.
It’s beneficial for both sides to come together again. Sosa’s history doesn’t need to be whitewashed, but it also doesn’t need to be belabored. We’re all adults here. Enough time has passed that we can contextualize the steroid era for what it was.
Sometimes, as the old movie quote goes, you just print the legend.
So hopefully, Sosa comes to Cubs Convention, which could use a dash of excitement, and gets his hero’s welcome — the attendees go crazy for Pete LaCock and Mike Fontenot, so Sosa will bring the house down — and there also needs to be a Sosa Day at Wrigley Field. Dynamic ticket pricing was invented for games like that.
And then he should make the team’s little Hall of Fame, which is currently located in a hallway that connects the left-field concourse to the bleachers. Sosa was on the ballot last year but didn’t get in. The committee is made up of media members, historians and ex-Cubs, so it’s up to them.
They don’t have to stop there. I’d be all for a Sosa statue. They can put it where it belongs, on Waveland Ave., where his home runs and his legend can live on forever.
(Photo: John Biever / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
