Finally. Finally. I think this means we can have Sammy Sosa back in our lives.
The former Chicago Cubs superstar, long-exiled thanks to an ugly ending to his time with the team and then the persistent rumors of steroid use, is now talking about the past. Sammy Sosa acknowledges that he did things to “keep [his] strength up” and “whatever [he] could to recover from injuries,” and he has apologized for those “mistakes.”
The full statement issued by Sammy Sosa, via Jesse Rogers:

The language in there is probably very carefully chosen, particularly with respect to not making any criminal admissions – can’t blame him there! – but it’s pretty clear what he’s saying.
Following the apology, I expect we will see Sosa welcomed back more fully and completely by the Chicago Cubs organization. He will probably be at the Cubs Convention (UPDATE: Sure enough, the Cubs sent an invitation immediately). He will become a Cubs Hall of Famer. His likeness will be deployed to great nostalgic value. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to make me feel like a kid again, like I can more completely reconnect with some of my favorite baseball moments.
The fact that the team’s network immediately put this out seems like a good sign:
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) December 19, 2024Sammy Sosa has issued a public apology to the Cubs.
'I made mistakes and I apologize.' pic.twitter.com/wzyuG0XP4d
Sosa, now 56, hadn’t even been back to Chicago in over a decade since his falling out with the team. Within the last year, however, he’s started making appearances in and around the city, with the most recent coming back in October. That certainly spurred some hope, including with respect to some appearances where Sosa he did use that word “mistakes,” and the suggestion that he sees things differently now when it comes to his past, the Cubs, and a possible reunion.
I’m just so happy it’s finally happened.
Sammy Sosa Offers an Apology
Whether we believe an “apology” was necessary for the Chicago Cubs to welcome Sammy Sosa back into the fold, team owner Tom Ricketts made it clear years ago that nothing was going to happen on this front until and unless there was “honesty” about what had happened. He was sympathetic and understanding in that request, acknowledging the position the players of that era were put in, but he was also quite firm and clear. It wasn’t an unreasonable position, given that there are undoubtedly folks still connected to the organization who understandably harbor resentment toward the players who participated in the activities that gave the Steroid Era its name. I get that it was never quite as simple as just acting like nothing had happened.
I also get that it was never quite as simple as asking Sammy Sosa to admit to everything. Yes, we want openness and honesty, but this is a human being we are talking about. There is a lot of personal risk there in giving up the shield and absorbing the full weight of judgment and criticism, so I can respect that it was a difficult thing to wrestle with.
It had felt at times like this day would never come. We’d previously learned about periods of time when maybe this kind of tell-all apology was getting close, only to die at the last minute. In a weird way, it seemed like Sammy Sosa was the final holdout from that era, even if our proximity to the story only made it feel that way.
Other players from that era have more openly discussed what they did, and also what the context was for their decisions. Even Mark McGwire, whose home run race with Sosa in 1998 maybe best embodied the uncomfortable duality of the Steroid Era – incredible feats that we loved to see, set against the discomfort of wondering what exactly was going on – eventually came clean. Thereafter, McGwire found new gigs within baseball, and most recently did a little guest coaching down in Arizona with the Cubs, who’d drafted his son.
Players admitted what had happened, and baseball accepted those players back into the big tent.
Now, at last, Sammy Sosa is among them.

I’m just so happy to fully have the memories back. I know that might sound weird to say, since they didn’t go anywhere, but that internal conflict was strong. Sammy Sosa was such an important part of my youthful Cubs fandom. He may have been the single most important player connecting me to the game of baseball. But he’d cheated. I knew he’d cheated. We all knew he’d cheated. And he just wouldn’t talk about it, and that wrapped those memories up in a shroud that I couldn’t ignore.
That said, we also cannot ignore the reality that Major League Baseball hardly took an aggressive stance to root out performance-enhancing drugs at that time, instead loudly and proudly celebrating the accomplishments of players whose bodies were changing in surprising ways. I’m not going to say that it wasn’t cheating or that every player did it. The guys who stayed clean throughout the Steroid Era were, by definition, playing at a disadvantage. But I am going to say that we can and should offer some grace and understanding to players who gave in to such an extreme temptation at a time when so many others were.
The openness and honesty from these players not only allows us to get over our cognitive dissonance as fans, but it also helps provide clear and confirmed context for that era. We baseball fans love our numbers, and it is important – in my view – to be OK with an asterisk. It doesn’t erase the numbers, but it reminds us that there is more to the story than just 60 or 66 or 70 or 73.
There will be so much more coming on this. Have I mentioned that I’m happy?
— Bleacher Nation (@bleachernation.bsky.social) December 19, 2024 at 2:09 PMThe Cubs have released a statement on Sammy Sosa, and it makes me so happy.