The star of this year’s Cubs Convention is already clear.
While the event will serve as right fielder Kyle Tucker’s introduction to the fanbase, a forum for fans to question president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and manager Craig Counsell, and an autograph opportunity like no other, it will also represent Sammy Sosa’s return to the fold.
Sosa is poised to steal the show.
The three-day convention at the Sheraton Grand Chicago this weekend, kicks into gear with the Opening Ceremony Friday at 6 p.m. Current players and alumni will walk across the stage to the raucous applause from a usually packed event space. And among them will be Sosa, whose absence had been glaring in years past.
“Players of that era owe us a little bit of honesty, too” chairman Tom Ricketts said at Cubs Convention back in 2018. “I feel like the only way to turn this page is just to put everything on the table.”
After that, some version of, “What’s the progress with Sammy?” became an inevitable question to Ricketts during the owners panel, sparking cheers from the audience. And even when the Cubs cut the panel last year, citing a lack of fan interest, the question was still front of mind for fans who had watched Sosa become the face of the franchise in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
The end of Sosa’s Cubs tenure was tumultuous. Then a New York Times report that Sosa was among the over 100 players who tested positive in what was supposed to be an anonymous MLB survey in 2003 colored his legacy.
As time went on, however, the adage, “absence makes the heart grow fonder,” held true. Sosa became a folk hero of sorts for nostalgic Cubs fans. And the conversation around PEDs morphed and picked up nuance, parsing MLB’s culpability.
Still, the stench of the steroid era was too strong for many Hall of Fame voters to overlook. Sosa and his other half in the 1998 home run chase, Mark McGwire, both fell short in voting for the 10 years they each appeared on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot. The same went for Barry Bond and Roger Clemens.
The only avenue left for them to be inducted into Cooperstown would be through the Era Committee ballot.
Sosa never admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs. And even the statement he released last month didn’t directly mention steroids. But it was enough of an olive branch to open the doors to an invitation to Cubs Convention.
“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,” Sosa’s statement read in part. “I never broke any laws, but in hindsight, I made mistakes, and I apologize.”
It might not have qualified as putting “everything on the table,” but a reunion was overdue.
Already, Marquee Sports Network has leaped at the opportunity to show Sosa highlights post-reconciliation. And this week the Cubs held a Sosa autograph session sweepstakes for Saturday, with 125 winners. Sosa is also scheduled as a guest for the live taping of left fielder Ian Happ’s podcast, “The Compound” this weekend.
The real measure of Sosa’s standing with the fanbase, however, will come Friday. When Sosa walks across the stage, Cubs fans will get the chance to kick off the weekend by welcoming him back.