Chicago Cubs’ Message to Sammy Sosa: “You’re Out!”
Sammy Sosa has not had any contact with the Chicago Cubs for the past three years. It’s likely that he was hoping to receive a call from them inviting him to join his former teammates in sharing some of the limelight of the Cubs’ quest for their first World Series title in (you already know) years. It ain’t gonna happen.
In a story being circulated today by Yahoo Sports, the Chicago Cubs have made it clear that former slugger Sammy Sosa will not be participating in the reunion of his teammates at the World Series. While the news may be disappointing to Sosa and his fans, and perhaps a few of his teammates, the Cubs appear to be on solid ground in making this decision.
To be clear, though, this is not a story about the Chicago Cubs. It’s about Sammy Sosa, who despite having hit 609 home runs in a major league uniform, fell short in the character area of good judgment on many occasions and for many reasons.
It’s also not about the fact that he wasn’t born in the United States as some would suggest. Sosa hails from the Dominican Republic. Because according to National Public Radio, this season about a quarter of the 800-plus players on Major League Baseball teams were born outside the United States. The country with the biggest number is the Dominican Republic, which had 83 players on Opening Day rosters last year.
What it is about, however, is that Sammy Sosa all but convicted himself as a baseball cheater when his bat shattered at home plate in June of 2000, and it was found to be loaded with cork that would give his bat a little extra “oomph” when it connected with the baseball. See for yourself…
Then if you want to, you can pick out smaller incidents that occurred during his career with the Chicago Cubs. It seems that Sosa developed a habit of playing the same CD in the clubhouse rather loudly and much to the annoyance of some teammates. In 2004, the Chicago Tribune reported that an anonymous player smashed his boom box after the slugger walked out on the team on the final day of the ’04 season. A few suspects emerged, but the culprit was never identified.
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The list goes on. Again in 2004, Yahoo Sports recalls the time when Sosa famously left the team’s regular season finale at Wrigley Field just 15 minutes after the game started. He never even put on his uniform, according to reports. That offseason, Sosa was traded to the Baltimore Orioles.
And finally, there’s the elephant in the room revolving around (we’ll just say) his “alleged” use of performance-enhancing drugs. At the time in 2005, ESPN reported the story this way:
"Sosa sat alongside Rafael Palmeiro, Canseco and McGwire at a 2005 hearing before a congressional committee, and his lawyer read a statement on behalf of Sosa: “To be clear, I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs.”“I have never injected myself or had anyone inject me with anything,” he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on March 17, 2005. “I have not broken the laws of the United States or the laws of the Dominican Republic. I have been tested as recently as 2004, and I am clean.”"
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Obviously, it’s the prerogative of the Chicago Cubs to exercise their rights to invite or not invite anyone they want to their World Series party this year. Noticeably, Sammy Sosa is not on the list of invitees. But perhaps that’s because Sammy Sosa went far out of his way to be noticed during his playing days with the Chicago Cubs. And there’s simply no reason for him to be noticed any longer.