Sammy Sosa is expected to return to Chicago Cubs camp as a guest instructor, continuing the reunification of the former star and the organization that shunned him for more than two decades.
It will be Sosa’s first appearance at Cubs spring training since 2004, the final year of a long and eventful career on the North Side. He met many of the current players at the Cubs Convention and hit it off.
Sosa’s arrival at old Fitch Park in Mesa, Ariz., was always newsworthy — usually because he was the last player there, amid one controversy or another. His spring training stories are legendary and too numerous to mention, but here are some of the Sosa sagas we can’t forget.
1998
After signing a four-year, $42.5 million deal in the summer of 1997, Sosa arrived late for “family considerations” and was the last player in camp.
On the final day of the ‘97 season, manager Jim Riggleman had ripped players for having a “me, me, me” attitude and chewed out Sosa in particular for ignoring a “no steal” sign to pad his stats.
“I dealt with that with Sammy after the incident,” Riggleman said. “Sammy was a real man about it, and it’s over now. The season is long and there are always situations (like that). The unfortunate thing is that it got caught on camera.”
Sosa eventually arrived and said he and Riggleman were fine.
“I don’t have a problem with anybody,” he said. “If anyone has a problem with me, they know where to find me.”
Sosa would go on to hit 66 home runs and duel with Mark McGwire for the single-season record, becoming a nationally known superstar.
1999
After the duel with McGwire increased his stature, Sosa arrived at camp and said aloud to no one in particular: “Did you miss me?” He put on his uniform pants and then asked clubhouse attendant Yosh Kawano for a larger size.
“He went from a size 34 (waist) to a 35,” Kawano confirmed. “Yes, he is bigger.”
Sosa said he gained 14 pounds of muscle and weighed 222 pounds. Due to his newfound fame, the Cubs assigned a security guard to be his Fitch Park bodyguard to fend off autograph seekers.
”There’s an electricity about Sammy, and all the players feed off of it,” Riggleman said, which was partly true.
In a Cactus League game, Sosa hit two home runs off the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Todd Stottlemyre and bowed to fans at the plate, which he had seen Japanese players do during an offseason tour of Japan by major-league players.
“He looked like a bullfighter out there,” Stottlemyre said. “Take it back to Japan. I don’t think there is any place for it in the game. I have all the respect in the world for Sammy. But to bow after a home run? There’s no place for that in this game. I don’t ever remember Mickey Mantle bowing after a home run.”
Sosa announced the next day he would stop bowing: “I don’t want this to go to a different level. If everyone is going to get mad at me for showing appreciation to the fans, I’m not going to want to play the game.”
2000
Sosa showed up late again. “I’d rather he show up later and play 162 (games) than be the first guy in camp and play 120,” general manager Ed Lynch said.
New manager Don Baylor disagreed: “I imagine a lot of those guys in the (locker room) probably care. They’re here working, and you don’t want to put one guy before the team. That’s not going to happen. I know one thing for sure: This team lost 95 games last year and we have to change that.”
Baylor quickly changed his tune and announced Sosa as one of four captains with Rick Aguilera, Mark Grace and Kevin Tapani.
“I’m not going to have any problem whatsoever with him,” Baylor said. “I think we’re both after the same thing. And the magnitude of Sammy Sosa, I’m not getting in the way of that.”
2001
A new narrative surrounded Sosa, who was booed at the Cubs Convention, mostly over prolonged contract negotiations with Cubs President Andy MacPhail. The Cubs offered a four-year deal worth about $70 million. Sosa was looking for at least five years at $18 million to $20 million per season.
“It’s a free country,” Sosa said of the booing. “Whatever they feel like they have to do, that’s OK. I don’t hurt anybody. I just come here to do my job.
“A lot of people are cheering for (me), booing (me). They have a reason why. To me, I’m here. I came from my country to be here and to be with them, and that’s what I get.”
When a sunnier Sosa arrived at camp, he turned on his boom box and said: “What’s up, fellas? Welcome to my house.” Several veteran players left the room to avoid the so-called “Sammy Circus.”
Sosa homered on the first pitch he saw in Cactus League play, without having faced live batting-practice pitching. He credited new fitness consultant Mack Newton. “I love myself,” Sosa repeatedly said.
The Cubs loved him too. Sosa agreed to a four-year, $72 million extension that spring, with player options through 2005 and an $18 million team option for 2006. He would not get past 2004.
2002
Shortly before camp, Sosa’s agent denied a report that Sosa was robbed of $20,000 at a hotel in Caracas, Venezuela.
“Sammy said it’s a nonstory,” Adam Katz told the Tribune. “He lost some money, but it was only about ($1,000). It’s a nonissue.”
Sosa reportedly had the cash in a plastic bag wrapped inside a towel as he and his brother sat talking in the lobby of the Caracas Hilton. They reportedly forgot the bag when they went to a hotel restaurant.
Still, Sosa arrived at camp in good spirits. “Good morning, America! I’m in the house!” he said before blasting his now famous boom box.
“I told him, ‘You’re finally here, and the noise begins,’” Baylor said.
2003
Sosa told reporters he preferred to arrive late because he was “superstitious” and had good years whenever he did. But he called new manager Dusty Baker beforehand to let him know he would be at camp on time.
“He’s trying to make some amends for whatever has happened in the past, to leave it in the past,” Baker said. “He’s trying to be a better teammate. Not to say he wasn’t before, which I don’t know.”
Baker added that Sosa’s power in the organization was evident: “When you’re putting butts in the seats and you’re making $18 million to $20 million, you have more power probably than anyone in the organization.”
Sosa gave a speech to the team before the first full-squad workout, prompted by veteran Lenny Harris, and later threw a team party at his house to unite everyone.
“That party needed to be (thrown),” he said. “Bringing everyone together was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Everyone that went to that party feels that for the first time we’re together.”
The Cubs would go on to win the division and fall five outs shy of the World Series, but Sosa’s corked-bat episode tainted his legacy.
2004
A new MLB rule barring “non-baseball personnel” from the clubhouse meant Sosa’s personal assistant, Julian Martinez, would be banned. The rule went into effect because of a steroids investigation into Barry Bonds’ trainer.
Martinez, paid by Sosa, was well-liked in the clubhouse and players voted to give him a partial playoff share in October 2003. But Cubs player representative Mark Prior said, “There shouldn’t be anyone in the locker room besides maybe close family — dad and brothers — and the media.”
The Cubs tried to get around the rule by making Martinez a paid employee and batting-practice pitcher and eventually put him in charge of the radar gun and pitch charting.
“I’m very happy with the decision they made,” Sosa said. “I just want to be happy and play baseball. I don’t want to cause any inconvenience or more trouble.”
During a Cactus League game, Sosa was unfazed after a line drive off Brian Giles’ bat glanced off the top of his head in right field and ricocheted to the wall. “He said he had a hard head,” Baker said.
That would be Sosa’s final Cubs camp. He was dealt to the Baltimore Orioles after the 2004 season.
Twenty-one years later, Sosa returns to a different Cubs camp at Sloan Park.
No word yet on the boom box.
