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Sammy Sosa Belongs in Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame
Two sad years shouldn’t eclipse a decade of sheer joy
By William S. Bike
The Chicago Cubs created their Hall of Fame in Wrigley Field in August of 2021 with 56 initial honorees — former players, managers, broadcasters, and executives.
Some members are household names, such as Ernie Banks and Ryne Sandberg. Some were fan favorites in an earlier era, such as Mordecai Brown and Phil Cavaretta.
But one player who was both a household name and a fan favorite isn’t a member. And he should be. That player is Sammy Sosa.
The Cubs, who usually got snookered in any trade in those days, turned the tables for once, and on their greatest hometown rivals to boot, by stealing Sosa in a deal with the Chicago White Sox after the 1991 season.
Pretty soon, Sammy was running out to right field with the enthusiasm that any Cub fan would have shown on that hallowed ground, joshing with the folks in the seats, doing a little leap after hitting a home run, and consistently tapping his heart to show his love to the fans. And the fans loved him right back. He acted like any Cub fan would have, had that fan been lucky enough to experience the joy of actually playing in the Friendly Confines.
Cub fans love players who love them back, and that was Sammy. They also love home run hitters, and he locked up their love with his first 40-homer season in 1996.
But nobody could have expected what happened in 1998. That year, both Sammy and Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals chased Roger Maris’ hallowed home run record of 61. Had McGwire been alone in his pursuit of Maris’s record, he likely would have felt the same pressure and displayed with the same stress responses as Maris did.
But Sammy made the homer run race fun. His charismatic personality endeared him to the entire country, and thereby he forced McGwire have fun too, whether the Cardinal wanted to or not. Continually gracious and happy throughout the season, Sammy dragged McGwire into being the same, and baseball fans had a magical summer that wiped out the bitter aftertaste of the 1994 lockout.
