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Sosa would be traded February 2, 2005 to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for Jerry Hairston, Mike Fontenot and Dave Crouthers.
The part that frustrates me the most about Sosa’s time in Chicago was the amount of shit that he took AFTER he left the team. One of the biggest shit storms Sosa had to face was (and is) his alleged usage of performance enhancing drugs, PEDs.
Sosa was quick to shut those down yet again.
“First of all, I’m clean. They don’t have a case on me. I never failed a drug test. Never in my life.”
Sosa then compared himself to Jesus Christ.
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Seriously.
“It’s like Jesus Christ when he came to Jerusalem. Everybody thought Jesus Christ was a witch (laughing) – and he was our savior. So if they talk (poop) about Jesus Christ, what about me? Are you kidding me?”
Look, I love Sosa but I think everyone can agree he was juicing on something. In the height of baseball’s PED era, it’s hard to explain to me how a player transforms like this from “hard work.”
After reading that Jesus quote I literally laughed out loud but then I realized that was one of the aspects that I loved about Sosa: his flair, his showmanship, his confidence to say things that most of us would be too scared to say.
And even though he hasn’t played in a game since 2007, Sammy showed he still had the same swagger that saw him hit 609 home runs – including a club-record 545 as a Chicago Cub, play in seven All-Star Games, and win six Silver Slugger Awards.
When asked if he’d come back and see the new and improved Wrigley Field, Sosa said he’d have no problem coming back — only if they invited him.
“This is my house – no matter what happened (at the end). My numbers – nobody is going to take them from me. Not even Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, hit that many home runs. And I did it with style (laughing). But if they invite me, why not? One day, if they invite me, a lot of people will be very happy about it.”
If the day comes that they DO invite Sammy back to Wrigley you can bet your ass that I’ll be sitting in the right field bleachers starting the famous, “SAM-MY, SAM-MY” chant with the rest of his former fans.
Even though there may not be that many left.
