Sammy Sosa Returned To Wrigley Field For The First Time In 21 Years On Friday And All Is Right In The World Again

6/21/2025 1:30 PM

ESPN - Legendary Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa returned to Wrigley Field for the first time in more than 20 years Friday before Chicago's afternoon game with the Mariners.
Sosa, who is set to be inducted into the Cubs' Hall of Fame this year, arrived at the iconic North Side ballpark in a black SUV. He was greeted by owner Tom Ricketts, who embraced him in a hug as he exited the vehicle.

Sosa became the face of the Cubs franchise where he played 13 seasons after coming in a trade from the crosstown White Sox in March 1992. A seven-time All-Star, Sosa hit 545 homers in 1,811 games with the Cubs and hit a franchise-record 66 in 1998, when he was named National League MVP.
Sosa, now 56, played his final game with the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Oct. 2, 2004, when he homered and had two hits in an 8-6 loss to the Atlanta Braves. The Cubs traded him to the Baltimore Orioles with cash in February 2005 for three players.

This was a move that was long overdue, that the Cubs should have done at least a decade ago. Bare minimum, after Rizzo and Co. break the curse in 2016, you couldn't have possibly had a more perfect opportunity to welcome one half of the two men who saved Major League Baseball, and nearly helped break the curse himself, back into the fold.

Times were the best they'd ever been on the Northside in the summer of 16. Everybody was on cloud 9, your grandfather could finally die a happy man.

And if Tom Ricketts had had his way, Sammy Sosa is probably up there on the stage at The Metro that night after the parade, (and later at The Underground), celebrating with the other current and former players.

But sadly, the Cubs overthink everything, are beyond paranoid about every single thing, and have too many Julian Greens and Crane Kenneys running the show. And for them, everything is always all about damage control, how to avoid doing the wrong thing. Even if that means not even risking to do the right thing. Because the only thing they worry about, is how the media will react, and what the fans will tweet about it.

The glass half full take on this is better late than never.

You can see that being persona non grata all these years to the Cubs went completely out the window today.

During his years with the Cubs, Sosa appeared to bulk up drastically and was a headliner in a generation of baseball's biggest names linked to performance-enhancing drugs.
Sosa appeared to acknowledge using PEDs in December when he released a statement saying he was sorry for mistakes, without specifying them.
"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," he said in the statement. "I never broke any laws. But in hindsight, I made mistakes and I apologize."

On Friday morning, Sosa posed for photos with rising Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong outside the team's clubhouse and a video showed Sosa embracing manager Craig Counsell in his office before the game.

The Cubs honored Sosa with a videoboard tribute after the second inning. Sosa waved and bowed to fans from a suite during the presentation.

Good for Sammy. Honestly. You can tell how much this had to mean to him.

Imagine putting not just a city, but the entire sport on your back like he did, and being repaid like he was? Treated like you're too toxic to be acknowledged. Excluded from all team events and reunions. Wiped from all posters, merch, tributes, videos, promos, etc. etc. etc. The message sent loud and clear was that the Cubs wanted to pretend that Sammy Sosa the Chicago Cub never existed.

Until he wrote a letter and had it published in major publications, apologizing for vague mistakes, (nothing in particular), but a very public apology nonetheless.

Now he's no longer radioactive. And he's a Cub again.

So again, good for Sammy! It's about time.

And good for all the fans at Wrigley today who got to pack it in on a stunning Chicago Friday afternoon. And watch that video play on the left field video board. Leading into Jeremiah announcing over the PA that "the Chicago Cubs are happy to welcome, Sammy Sosa, back to Wrigley Field."

Fucking awesome. All is right in the world again.

Also - So Sammy is black again?