No progress toward Sosa reunion

Ricketts: No progress toward Sosa reunion originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

During the fan Q&A session at the Ricketts family panel that opened Saturday’s events at this weekend’s Cubs Convention, fans asked the Cubs chairman about the possibility of more day games, the changes to the area around Wrigley Field and what Laura and Tom’s first memories of the Cubs were.

When it came to baseball, two fans asked Ricketts about a star who hasn’t donned Cubbie blue in nearly two decades.

“What’s the progress with Sammy?”

Ricketts simply iterated that there was no said progress with the former Cubs icon.

“Nothing’s really changed anyway. I see both sides, I hope some day we come to a really nice resolution, but I don’t have anything new to report.”

The news of no movement toward a reunion with a player who many Cubs fans view as pivotal to their love of baseball was not what some attending the convention wanted to hear.

As Ricketts wrapped up his answer, one fan was heard shouting.

“Bring him back!!”

Sammy Sosa and the Cubs have had an icy relationship since the sour conclusion of his tenure with the team in 2004, which infamously ended with Sosa leaving Wrigley Field before the conclusion of their final game, with then-Cubs manager Dusty Baker and the outfielder sharing different versions of the events, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The end of Sosa’s tenure with the Cubs came alongside the end of a wildly disappointing season, which saw the Cubs drop seven of their final nine contests, squandering a 1.5 game lead in the Wild Card race they held on Sept. 24.

Sosa went on to play one season with the Baltimore Orioles in 2005, where he hit well below league-average across 102 games before taking a year off in 2006.

The former Cubs star played his final Major League season in 2007 with the team he debuted with in 1989, the Texas Rangers. Sosa notably hit his 600th career home run against the Cubs in an interleague game that summer.

In June 2009, a report from the New York Times revealed that Sosa was among 104 players to test positive for a banned substance in 2003, while the MLB was evaluating steps for creating a future performance-enhancing drug screening program that later took effect in 2005.

The same report also notably implicated David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez, the latter two of whom would later serve official long-term suspensions for steroid-related violations.

The report severely damaged Sosa’s standing with Hall of Fame voters, never gaining more than 18.5 percent of the ballots in 10 tries.

It also further strained Sosa’s relationship with the Cubs, his team of 13 years for which he holds the all-time franchise home run record for.

The Ricketts family formally took ownership of the Cubs months after the report that revealed Sosa’s positive test, and Sosa has not appeared at any team functions or events since then.

Ricketts has previously said that he wanted the slugger to publicly own up to usage of performance-enhancing drugs, suggesting that Sosa should apologize to the Cubs and their fans.

In a 2020 ESPN documentary “Long Gone Summer” that chronicled the 1998 home run chase that many fans see as the moment baseball was revived after the 1994 strike, Sosa said he felt he was being singled out for something that “everyone was doing.”

“Why do they worry about me when pretty much everybody in that era did [steroids]?” Sosa said in the documentary.

Sosa has never admitted to using steroids, however, and said in the documentary “I am the one to blame?” for the scuff mark brought on baseball by the Steroid era.

Previously, an attorney for Sosa testified on his behalf in front of Congress in 2005, saying Sosa had never used steroids.

The testimony came in wake of the BALCO scandal, surrounding a west coast nutrition center that had been accused of distributing steroids to players.

Sosa’s absence during the Ricketts’ tenure has been noticeable during significant team events, namely the 100th anniversary celebration of Wrigley Field in 2014 and the celebration following the 2016 World Series.

Despite the conspicuous omission of Sosa from Cubs lore under Ricketts and a vocal contingency of fans who want to see their team make amends with the former slugger, the chairman’s answer Saturday sounded awfully similar to what he said during a radio appearance in January 2019, days before that year’s Cubs Convention.

“At the moment, the answer is no, nothing’s changed,” Ricketts said to David Kaplan on ESPN 1000.

While the murkiness surrounding Sosa’s likely steroid usage and his awkward responses in the years that have followed his career have left Cubs ownership and many others in baseball (namely Hall of Fame voters) uneasy with the idea of Sosa being embraced by the Cubs, a second fan to ask Ricketts about Sosa was rather direct.

“You and your family are not the reasons why I watch baseball. I watch baseball because of Sammy Sosa.”

The fan continued, “What do you view as the two sides? Because from a fan perspective, it is very one-sided. That he is the reason why I watch and why I’ve been a Cubs fan for 25 years.”

Ricketts alluded to Sosa’s struggles on the Hall of Fame ballot, saying that the committee’s voters would agree that there are two sides to this issue.

“I just want to be thoughtful about it and do it in a way that’s respectful of both the people that loved Sammy as a player as I did, and people that respect the game too, and I think there’s a balance for that somewhere and maybe we’ll find it at some point.”

The Cubs chairman added that he “doesn’t believe the final chapter is written on this.”

However, with Ricketts’ steadfast opposition to a seamless return to the organization for Sosa and no sign that the former slugger would issue an apology, it’s hard to envision the Cubs’ all-time home run leader being welcomed back with open arms in the foreseeable future.