Former White Sox player and manager, Ozzie Guillen, recently commented on the Cubs estrangement with Sammy Sosa.
"It's not my business. I'm not part of the team," Guillen said on NBC Sports Chicago's "White Sox Postgame Live" Sunday. "They treat Sammy Sosa like he was convicted of something."
Ozzie did get one thing right, it's none of his business. As usual for Guillen, he can't shut up about things he shouldn't be talking about.
Sammy Sosa may be the most polarizing player in Chicago Cubs history. Most Cubs fans were starry eyed as he was hitting homeruns at an amazing clip in the late 1990's and early 2000's. He laughed and smiled at questions regarding steroids, and said, "they're just vitamins."
Well, they weren't "just vitamins" as Sosa, and many others of that era, have been swallowed up in the steroid debate. Did he or didn't he is the most asked question for players of his generation. While he has never been proven to actually take them, it is pretty obvious by his change in appearance before, during, and after that he was using.
For many of us long time Cubs fans, this isn't the worst of the offenses we have used as our negative feelings towards Sosa. The fact that he walked out on his team, even if he had permission as David Kaplan and many other long time lovers of Sosa claim, he never should have done that.
It is for this, along with the shame he brought on the team with his steroid use, that are the reasons I never want to see his ugly mug at Wrigley Field again. I appreciated his big bombs when he was hitting them, but I never liked his me first attitude and showboating for the cameras.
Here are two places he should never be allowed into. The national Hall of Fame, and the new, Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame. Any player, where there is even a sniff of steroid use, has been held out of the national HOF by the baseball writers association, and rightly so. Until baseball reinstates Pete Rose, who did far less damage to baseball with his gambling then the cheaters using steroids have, steroid users will remain outside looking in.
As far as I'm concerned, Hank Aaron still holds the all time homerun record and the cheaters should get as asterisk next to their records.
Anyway, back to Sosa.
As I recall, the Cubs won exactly zero world series with Sosa hitting his homeruns. He did set the record for kissing into the camera after each one though. "I do it for my mom and the fans." Right. His ego was as big as his head and to this day he still doesn't understand why the Cubs ownership is against him. Talk about self denial.
I know many of you will be muttering under your breath that I loved him when he was playing and guess what, you would be wrong. I was never a fan of his. He was the Ron Santo of his era, and I loved Santo. Like him, Sosa hit his homeruns when they mattered the least. If the Cubs really needed him to hit one to win a game, or get back into one, he popped up, grounded out, or more usually, struck out.
The difference between him and Santo, is that Santo never walked out on his team, or sat out when he didn't feel like playing that day. Sosa was a bum, and still is a bum. If you want back into the fold you don't go on a world tour of interviews claiming the Cubs have it in for you. That is not going to win management, or fans, back.
The Cubs have been pretty clear on what he needs to do, admit you used, apologize, and ask for forgiveness. He won't because he truly doesn't think he did anything wrong. I don't feel sorry for him, and I don't wish him any more ill will. I just want him to either go away, or do what the team has asked him to do.
Until then, he is dead to me.