Remember me?
There’s understandably been a lot of talk about Sammy Sosa lately: will he ever get in the Hall of Fame? Should he get in the Hall of Fame? Does anyone even care if he gets in the Hall of Fame? For his part, Sammy has helped stay on Cubs’ fans’ radar lo these past few weeks with a social media blitz that has left most of us, if not doubled-over in fits of laughter, at least scratching our heads. Does Sammy really think that a few pictures on Pinterest are going to re-kindle the love we once bore him? Especially when they are really REALLY bad photos on Pinterest?
And therein lay the problem with Sammy Sosa: it’s not just we all found out he was cheating (and yes, it was cheating and no, everyone wasn’t doing it), it was that most of us had come to dislike him as a human being we came to the conclusion that he was using performance-enhancing drugs.
If you are puzzled by this statement, allow me to refresh your recollection: there was his tempertantrum at being asked (nay, politely requested) to hit lower in the lineup by Dusty Baker, even though Sammy couldn’t break .200 to save his life at the time he was asked. There was the lashing out in indignation at reporters who dared to ask Sammy if he’d be willing to take a test to prove he wasn’t using steroids. There was the corked bat incident (hello, you can’t argue that wasn’t cheating). There was the walking out on his team before games were even over.
All of this, of course, leading up to Sammy driving Kerry Wood, possibly the most mild-mannered of all the recent Cubs, to take a baseball bat to Sammy boom-box, which reportedly streamed salsa music non-stop, no matter how poorly the team had played that day.
And, of course, there was Sammy’s sudden and infamous inability to speak English when hauled before Congress as part of a farcical “investigation” into PED use by major league ballplayers.
I wish I’d never come across THAT Sammy Sosa. I, like the rest of America, was in love with the first Sammy Sosa. The one who seemed to play baseball with joy and verve. The one who seemed to remember, and rejoice in, the fact that he was a grown man paid million of dollars to play a child’s game. He had raised himself up from a poor family in the Dominican Republic to chase one of the most-hallowed records in baseball, and he was having a goddamned great time doing it.
Who could ever forget Ted Williams, being driven out to the mound at Fenway before the 1999 All-Star game, surrounded by some of the greatest ballplayers to ever play the game, and straining his neck to see through the crowd to ask “Where’s Sammy? Where’s Sammy?” Even the greatest pure hitter in the history of the game had fallen under Sammy’s joyous mid-summer spell.
That’s the Sammy Sosa I like to remember, though it turned out that the real Sammy was much like most other professional athletes: spoiled, selfish, and more concerned about appearances and his own accomplishments than the good of the team. Try as I might, that’s the Sammy Sosa that lingers in my memory.
Sammy’s recent social media push seems to indicate that he feels that his problem with HOF voters is that people have forgotten him. The problem with Sammy Sosa isn’t that I’ve forgotten him . . . it’s that I remember him.
(Please take a second to like LOHO’s page on Facebook. We post a lot of things over there during the day that don’t make the site.)
Some of us don’t need the love rekindled. I never stopped loving Sammy. He’s my childhood hero, and he remains the reason I’m a fan of baseball (and the reason I hung on to fandom of this stupid, shitty team for longer than I should have).
Also, the English-congressional thing. Look, Sammy speaks good English, but not the level of English he should have going before Congress. He speaks about the same level of English as my boyfriend, whom I’ve advised to always request an interpreter if he needed to speak to any official (let alone an elected official in a hearing). Congress, the media, fans, and everyone else will hang with precision on each and every word spoken. If you don’t possess the skills to communicate exactly what it is you intend to communicate because English isn’t your native language, you can and should request an interpreter or refuse to speak. Roger Clemens was indicted and tried based on the words he used. Sammy was smart not to put himself in the position where misspeaking due to language abilities could cause him trouble.
I get that. I always say that, though I’m fluent in French, if I were going on trial, I’d want an interpreter. But, you have to admin, him looking to his interpreter for EVERY.SINGLE.THING he was asked was kind of hilarious. Even when the Senators asked him how he was doing.
I imagine he was also scared shitless. I’ve sat in on a hearing or twenty, and its rare that I’ve seen prefectly calm and relaxed witnesses. Even when its experts testifying on their area of expertise in front of a friendly committee. These guys were there to get called out for something “bad” that could lead (and did lead, for Clemens) to trouble. And Sammy had to endure this in a second language. I can’t say I’d have acted any different.
At this point…it’s not up to the fans or Sosa himself to really resolve this.
It’s up to the Cubs. The Cubs, as an organization, should be inviting Sosa back…have him throw out a first pitch, have a Sammy Sosa day and maybe even retire his number.
The Cardinals brought back Mark McGwire in a much more important fashion by making him a coach and the people of St. Louis have continued to embrace the guy (though he isn’t coaching for them any more). The Cubs don’t have to do nearly that much to help Sosa start to mend things.
With as much as Sosa help the organization for the better part of 8 years, the team owes it to him to start this healing process.
Retire his number? Fuck that.
Fine…don’t retire his number, but the Cubs have ignored him for almost a decade now. It’s time for them to acknowledge what he did for this franchise.
BTW . I knew I was going to get slammed for this post. So come at me, bro.
I’m not slamming you, just letting you know you’re wrong.
Yeah well, you also loved Dick Cheney, so I take your opinions with a grain of salt.
I didn’t love Dick Cheney. I loved (as in, was fascinated by) the way he’d just “fuck you” his way to whatever he wanted. I think everyone should admit that if they could get away with plowing everyone out of their way, letting them know what you thought of them, and getting what you wanted, you’d probably do it. At least, you fantasize about it. Dick Cheney actually did it.
I mean, he nearly ruined the country doing it, but you have to admire someone who does what we all dream of doing.
you said you loved dick cheney and grover norquist. i heard you.
why do you hate america?
I love this discussion.
I agree with gravedigger about the wanting an interpreter in front of Congress thing. Roger Clemens didn’t ask for an asshole-to-English interpreter, and look how that turned out for him.
That said, Sammy did seem to care about the fans more than his own teammates, which while I liked him caring about the fans, not being a jerk to your teammates is important too. (Dude, get some headphones for that boom box.)
If Sammy hadn’t done what he did in 1998, though, I might not have discovered my love of baseball to the extent that I did, so I thank him for that.
As to whether he should be in the hall of fame, I say yes. Him and McGwire and Bonds and Clemens and hell, even Palmeiro, go in the Asterisk Section.
Also, Sammy Sosa was the best outfielder on my 2007 fantasy team (20-team league, 25 players per team), after I got him in the 24th round of the draft (because he hadn’t played in 2006 and nobody knew if he’d make the Rangers’ roster out of camp or not.) I have fond memories of that, even though I finished 15th out of 20 in the league.
Oh, and it was an 18-category (9×9) head-to-head league. That was fun to spreadsheet for.
I think the Cubs honoring Sosa is not the same thing as ignoring what rules he broke, or his behavior the last years. I also think that if the baseball writers are going to refuse to put a whole generation of players in that used/may have used/someone said they used P.E.D.’s that were not banned for anyone else in the United States to use, then they should be consistent and remove Cobb,Commissioner Landis,Tris Speaker,Cap Anson,& Charles Comiskey.(I’m not even going to go into all the HOF players who drank) Then, they can go to all the other branches and remove any writers, etc. who may have taken drugs,or otherwise broken the law.
I think of Sosa as Popeye the Baseball man.
He takes his steroids (spinach) and becomes a super hitter.
An object of laughter. A clown.
I do not want to see the Cubs bring him back. If we want a HERO worth revering and honoring,lets get Andre Dawson back!
Andre Dawson has been back. He’s been back a number of times and has gone to the Cubs convention on numerous occasions.
Sammy Sosa carried this franchise for 8 years and basically boosted average annual attendance at Wrigley to the 3 million range. He kept the Cubs interesting (and making money) during a time when the team was, on average, pretty darn crappy.
Cheating or not, he deserves something from this franchise.
Jon Heyman has reported that the Cubs are in on Scott Hairston (as are about 54 other teams).
At least we aren’t going to give up a guy that hit 600 home runs to get him.
At least they aren’t in on Jerry Hairston.
I will say this about Sammy. He left my kids with a reason to always remember me.
His corked bat broke on my birthday.
“Hey dad, remember what happened on this day?”
It never fails.
I just remember the announcers saying the umps were looking at the bat, and then I started going “oh no . . oh nonononononononono.”
I was there for the game after… will never forget the buzz around the stadium and the mixed – but strong on both sides of applause and booing — reaction when he stepped up to the plate.