Sammy Sosa will be inducted into the Cubs Hall of Fame as a member of the 2025 class, along with first baseman Derrek Lee, the team announced during the Cubs Convention opening ceremony Friday.
Sosa missed his chance to be voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame via the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot, gaining enough votes to remain on the ballot for the maximum 10 years but falling well short of the 75% needed for induction.
His last year of eligibility was in 2022, so his only possible route to Cooperstown would be through the rotating Era Committee ballot.
Being enshrined in the Cubs’ Hall may be the closest Sosa ever gets. And the honor was made possible when he issued an apology statement last month, paving the way for the reconciliation between the former face of the franchise and team ownership.
Sosa didn’t directly address his connection to the steroid era in the statement, but he did say understands “why some players in [his] era don’t always get the recognition that [their] stats deserve.”
“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 said in the statement. “I never broke any laws, but in hindsight, I made mistakes, and I apologize.”
