Sammy Sosa joins Cubs spring training for first time in 21 years: ‘I feel like a player again’

MESA, Ariz. — Sammy Sosa watched his advice to Vidal Bruján put into practice as the switch hitter lifted a no-doubter over the left-field fence. He hopped out of the box as his homer landed halfway up the berm, in a nod to the Cubs legend sitting in the dugout Tuesday.

“The first couple of at-bats, I was talking to him, he was jumping a little bit,” Sosa said Wednesday. “I’m like, ‘Look, you can hit,’ because that’s the only thing that you have to tell the player. If you feel comfortable, you have a plan, you’ve got to stick with your plan. But when you start jumping up there, you’re starting to go all over the place, you’re going to miss it.”

Sosa told Bruján to stay back and use his back leg to generate power.

“We say, bring the swagger,” Sosa said with a laugh.

Brujan brought it.

It’s been a quick turn since Sosa’s reconciliation with chairman Tom Ricketts this winter. After Sosa’s apology — which he clarified at Cubs Convention was not an admission to using performance enhancing drugs — the team embraced him as an incoming Cubs Hall of Fame inductee last month.

On Tuesday, Sosa arrived in Cubs spring training for the first time in 21 years, this time as a guest instructor. Sosa plans to be in camp for about a week, beginning with his appearance in the dugout for their game against the Diamondbacks at Sloan Park.

On Wednesday, again clad in a Cubs uniform, he took the field for the team’s morning workout before heading to Scottsdale to face the Giants.

“Man, I feel like a player again,” said Sosa, 56. “It’s good. All the players are happy for me to be here. I have a lot to contribute here.”

Several players, including outfielders Ian Happ and Kevin Alcántara had the chance to interact with Sosa for the first time last month at Cubs Convention. Happ even interviewed Sosa on his podcast, “The Compound,” that weekend as part of the festivities.

“Just the way that he talks about competing, talks about confidence and always having that,” Happ said, “I think it’s something that’s pretty powerful that everybody can learn from.”

What’s the best piece of advice Sosa gave Alcántara?

“Stay hungry,” Alcántara said. “Play the game like it’s your last game.”

Sosa spent Wednesday morning talking to hitters both one-on-one and in small groups. They chatted up the line in the transition between drills, or behind the on-field cage during batting practice.

“He seems like he’s eager to help out the guys and answer any questions that we have,” said Michael Busch, who also talked with Sosa in the dugout Tuesday.

Sosa’s return naturally garnered media attention. He greeted the gathered reporters with smiles and handshakes before his scheduled availability. He unleashed his natural charm at the TV camera. But when the Cubs’ greatest showman walked onto the field, he almost melded into the sea of players and coaches.

As pitchers and infielders ran through situations on the field, Sosa was engrossed in conversation with hitting coach Dustin Kelly, asking questions as Kelly broke down different players’ swings.

“He genuinely loves hitting and likes to be around the players,” Kelly said. “So you’ve noticed that right away. And just guys light up when they talk to him because he’s an icon when it comes to hitting in general, and obviously with the Cubs.”

Most Cubs hitters are too young to have memories of the 1998 home run chase — or even 2001, when Sosa set franchise records for extra-base hits (103), total bases (425) and slugging percentage (.737) in a season. They heard stories after the fact and watched highlights. But Justin Turner, 40, remembers.

“Anytime you can get a guy around like that, you automatically revert to the little kid that was watching him do his thing, do the Sammy Sosa hop,” Turner said. “And you just have a lot of respect for what he and [Mark] McGwire did, really making baseball popular again with that home run race.”

Sosa’s exile from the Cubs, who he represented on the field for 13 years, lasted so long that the team’s spring training complex was foreign to him when he arrived Tuesday. The last time Sosa was in Cubs spring training, the team was down the road at Hohokam. They opened their new campus in 2014.

Experiencing Sloan Park and the adjacent facilities for the first time, Sosa compared it to Disney World.

“A lot of space,” he said. “Incredible, beautiful, very nice. Wow. I mean, we didn’t have that when we played.”

Sosa was originally scheduled to arrive earlier in the day Tuesday, but travel complications got him to the complex just in time for the game.

Just in time to give Bruján — who shares a hometown of San Pedro de Macoris with Sosa — words of wisdom.

“Honestly, the word from a great person and a great talent like Sammy Sosa helps you so much,” Bruján said through a translator. “It programs you to bring out the good ballplayer that’s inside of you. I understand that the words he gave me were key for that at-bat.”