January 7, 2016

Tribune, Sammy Sosa's past makes for dubious future in Hall of Fame voting http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-sammy-sosa-hall-of-fame-ballot-20160106- column.html

 Cubs.com, Sosa sees vote total dip in latest Hall balloting http://m.cubs.mlb.com/news/article/161198792/sammy-sosa-falls-short-hall-of-fame-2016

 ESPNChicago.com, Sammy Sosa falls short of Hall again http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/36113/sammy-sosa-falls-short-of-hall-again

 CSNChicago.com, Cubs: Sammy Sosa (barely) stays on the Hall of Fame ballot for another year http://www.csnchicago.com/cubs/cubs-sammy-sosa-barely-stays-hall-fame-ballot-another-year

 CSNChicago.com, Starlin Castro thanks Chicago in vulnerable open letter for Players' Tribune http://www.csnchicago.com/cubs/starlin-castro-thanks-chicago-vulnerable-open-letter-players-tribune-cubs- yankees

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Chicago Tribune Sammy Sosa's past makes for dubious future in Hall of Fame voting By Paul Sullivan

Sammy Sosa received a slight bump in the Hall of Fame voting this year, going from 6.6 percent of the votes to 7.0 percent.

Sosa's old pal, Mark McGwire, also went up from 12.1 percent to 12.3 percent.

But Sosa merely staved off the inevitable, remaining on the ballot at least one more year, while McGwire failed to make it in his 10th and final year of eligibility.

Saving , as they allegedly did during the great home race of 1998, evidently isn't all it's cracked up to be.

When president and future commissioner came up with the idea of a Hall of Fame in 1936, he couldn't have envisioned the annual controversy that would surround the election by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

In "No Cheering in the Press Box," Frick told the late Sun-Times and Tribune baseball writer he simply wanted great players to meet annually and relive old times, and for fans to be able to "compare the moderns with the ancients" at the Hall museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

But now it's increasingly difficult to compare the moderns with each other, much less the ancients, thanks to the PED issue that has skewed stats and ignited endless debates over which players from the Steroids Era are deserving.

What once was a relatively simple voting process has become increasingly divisive, and before celebrating on Wednesday, was forced to answer questions about the rumors involving him once again.

"It's an interesting world today when there are so many outlets out there," he said. "That's the freedom we have. You can say these things, and that's the country we live in."

As Sosa loved to say: "God bless America."

Sosa always thought he was a Hall of Famer, but unlike Piazza, the PED allegations are highly likely to prevent his selection. Sosa ranks eighth on the all-time list with 609 and 28th in RBIs (1,667), yet he never has come close to being a serious candidate. He started out with 12.5 percent of the vote in 2013, and still can't get any traction, even as and got bumps this year.

It appears, Sosa's only shot would be on a vote years from now, as happened with Cubs .

His only goal should be reuniting with the Cubs, a long shot to be sure. Sosa's acrimonious exit from Chicago after the 2004 season has made him persona non grata at , even though suggested last October that Sosa should throw out the first pitch at a .

The Cubs wouldn't have let Sosa steal the thunder if they had. They want him to apologize, though they haven't said exactly for what.

The juicing? The walkout? A blanket apology perhaps?

I recently spoke to one of Sosa's Cubs teammates who asked me why Sosa has to grovel just to come back to Wrigley Field while Ramirez was welcomed to the organization with open arms. He called it "hypocritical" of the Cubs, pointing to the crowds Sosa brought in and the money he made for the club.

Of course, the Rickettses didn't own the team when Sosa played, so they really don't owe him anything. But they at least should invite him to the Cubs Convention, where fans can cheer or boo him to their hearts content, giving everyone a bit of closure.

We all deserve that.

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Cubs.com Sosa sees vote total dip in latest Hall balloting By Carrie Muskat

CHICAGO -- Sammy Sosa was again denied a chance to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and for the fourth straight year, his vote total dropped.

Sosa, 47, received 31 votes, or seven percent, from the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Wednesday, well below the numbers needed for induction into Cooperstown. However, Sosa did get enough votes to remain on the ballot for another year.

In 2013, Sosa received 71 votes, or 12.5 percent, and those numbers dropped in 2014 when he got 41 votes, or 7.2 percent. Last year, he received 6.6 percent (36 votes). A candidate must receive 75 percent of the vote from BBWAA members to gain election to the Hall of Fame, and at least five percent to stay on the ballot.

Lee Smith, who saved 478 games over 18 seasons in the big leagues, including eight years with the Cubs from 1980-87, also will stay on the ballot. He received 150 votes (34.1 percent). Last year, Smith received 166 votes (30.2 percent), which was a slight increase from 2014, when the right-hander got 171 votes (29.9 percent).

The BBWAA did elect two players into the Hall on Wednesday: Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza.

Sosa belted 609 home runs over 18 Major League seasons, including 13 years with the Cubs, and had the numbers that should have made it easy for him to join baseball's elite. But his career had other elements for Hall of Fame voters to consider. According to a Times story in June 2009, Sosa allegedly was among 104 Major League players who tested positive for performance-enhancing substances in 2003. Sosa never was found guilty by an official MLB entity.

Since he retired, Sosa has kept busy with his businesses and family. During the playoffs in October, Manny Ramirez, now a hitting consultant with the Cubs, endorsed the idea of having Sosa return to Wrigley Field.

"Sammy is a great person, an awesome guy," Ramirez said at the time. "Why not just give him a chance to come?"

Sosa did respond to Ramirez's comments through a spokesperson, saying he liked the idea of coming back. In his note, Sosa said: "I remember how exciting it was for the 2003 [Cubs] team. Now it's your turn and you are making us all proud. This is your time. Enjoy it and take us all the way to the World Series."

In early December, in ceremonies in the , Sosa was inducted into the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame, along with Ivan Rodriguez, Omar Vizquel, Orlando Hernandez, Edgar Renteria, and Jesse Orosco.

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ESPNChicago.com Sammy Sosa falls short of Hall again By Jesse Rogers

CHICAGO -- Former star Sammy Sosa once again fell well short of making the Hall of Fame but garnered just enough votes (7 percent) to remain on the ballot next year. Players who receive less than 5 percent of the 440 total votes cast are removed from the ballot permanently.

Sosa has hovered around 7 percent since earning 12.5 percent in his first year of eligibility in 2013. He had 7.2 percent in 2014 and 6.6 last year. Sosa earned the least amount of votes of players who survived the cut. Players need to appear on 75 percent of ballots to make the Hall of Fame. Only Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza were elected this year.

Sosa ranks eighth all–time in home runs but played during an era when performance enhancing drugs were prevalent. Career home run leader Barry Bonds also fell well short of making it (44.3 percent).

Former Cubs reliever earned 34 percent this year.

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CSNChicago.com Cubs: Sammy Sosa (barely) stays on the Hall of Fame ballot for another year By Patrick Mooney

Sammy Sosa used to love the spotlight, but now it feels like his name only comes up in the Cooperstown voting or with the Cubs Convention question. The star attraction during all those summers in Wrigleyville resurfaces in the dead of winter – for a news cycle or two – and then disappears again.

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America elected Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza to the National Baseball Hall of Fame while Roger Clemens (45.2 percent) and Barry Bonds (44.3 percent) – two of the biggest symbols from The Steroid Era – didn’t come close to the 75-percent threshold needed for induction.

Griffey went 437-for-440, scoring the highest percentage (99.3) in the history of this popularity contest. Junior finished his highlight-reel career with 630 home runs and 10 Gold Gloves in center field, spending almost his entire career with the Mariners organization that drafted him No. 1 overall and his hometown Reds (plus a run with the 2008 White Sox after a July 31 deadline ).

Piazza – the power-hitting catcher who turned into a 12-time All-Star and a franchise icon for the after the picked him in the 62nd round of the 1988 draft – broke through with 83 percent of the vote in his fourth year on the ballot.

Sosa just cleared the 5-percent cutoff and will remain on the ballot for another year after the BBWAA released the results on Wednesday, but his resume isn’t moving the needle, the percentages going from 12.5 to 7.2 to 6.6 to 7 since 2013.

At this point, Sosa is not expected to attend next week’s Cubs Convention, and it would probably take a fundamental shift in thinking for that sort of reunion to happen, where he’s signing autographs, sitting alongside old teammates and telling stories inside a packed downtown hotel ballroom.

The marketing machine has so many other personalities to promote that weekend (Jan. 15-17) at the Sheraton Grand Chicago, from a of the Year () to a Award winner () to a Rookie of the Year (), plus the big-name additions to a 97-win team (, , ).

In what’s becoming a new Cubs Convention tradition, a fan at the microphone or a reporter in the media scrum will ask chairman Tom Ricketts about Sosa and when the franchise’s all-time leader in home runs (545) will ever be invited back to Wrigley Field.

From top to bottom, the organization has completely changed since Sosa walked out during the final game of the 2004 season, leaving him without many longtime allies on the North Side (where institutional memories of some behind-the-scenes personality clashes still linger).

From an ownership point of view, the sense is that Sosa could account for whatever happened – or didn’t happen – during that time and follow ’s roadmap back into the game.

That’s a reasonable expectation. But it’s still “awkward” – as Ricketts has said – that such a big part of the franchise’s history keeps fading from view. Especially when so many other former players use their Cubs connections to work in baseball operations and broadcasting.

Team president Theo Epstein already hired Manny Ramirez as a hitting consultant, believing “Manny Being Manny” meant something different after failing at least two drug tests, cooperating with MLB officials and sharing his story with the next generation of players.

“I really like what he does with the hitters,” Maddon said during last season’s surprising playoff run. “Beyond that, almost as a cultural coach, (given) the fact that we have so many young Hispanic players, (Manny’s) here to validate a lot of the stuff that we’re talking about. (It) really helps – not a little – but a lot. His influence within that group has been substantial.

“When I have a situation or a moment dealing with some of the younger guys there, he’ll come in, we’ll talk about it, and then I just turn him loose.

“I love having him here. He’s a positive, upbeat kind of a guy, so he’s been a really nice fit. I’m telling you – when it comes to Starlin (Castro) and Jorge Soler, primarily those two guys – the job he’s done has been spectacular.”

Sosa’s reputation unraveled with that corked-bat incident, an unconvincing performance in front of Congress and a New York Times report that identified him as one of the players who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003 (during what was supposed to be an anonymous survey).

Mark McGwire – Sosa’s foil during the 1998 – did some version of a confessional media tour, took hitting-coach jobs with the St. Louis Cardinals and Dodgers and will be the bench coach this year. (McGwire came in at 12.3 percent in his 10th and final year on the ballot.)

Even Bonds is coming out of the shadows and will work as a hitting coach for the this season.

The guess here is Sosa could still have something to offer, but the ball is in Sammy’s court.

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CSNChicago.com Starlin Castro thanks Chicago in vulnerable open letter for Players' Tribune By Tony Andracki

It was easy to look past the Starlin Castro trade to the .

After all, it's been a crazy offseason for the Cubs, with signing three major free agents - including veteran Ben Zobrist, announced right before the Castro trade.

But Castro's departure deserves more attention than it's gotten, and the former Cubs franchise cornerstone helped his own case with a vulnerable open letter to Chicago for the Players' Tribune.

It's interesting that Castro spoke to Chicago through 's website, just a few years after he was being marketed alongside Jeter on billboards around Chicagoland.

Castro started by talking about his MLB debut and moved on to showing gratitude to the fans, admitting he "will never be able to thank them enough."

He also, of course, thanked the Cubs organization and the people he experienced in the organization, giving a shout-out for teaching him how to act like a professional.

Then Castro got into the lowest point of his Cubs career - being benched at shortstop in August of this past season.

He was more candid and vulnerable and it was fantastic:

As for this past season: Getting replaced at shortstop was a struggle for me at first. Change is never easy — especially when it is a change away from something you took pride in. But I also took pride in the fact that I was not going to be one of those players who lost his spot and then brought the team down with him. I knew that I had been taught — by veterans like Alfonso, and other great leaders in the Cubs organization — to be better than that.

And the pride I felt about my own job had a lot to do with the pride I felt about what we were building as a team. I was a Cub when we lost 101 games in 2012. I played in every one of those games; I lived those 101 losses. For us to finally start winning was very satisfying to me. It didn’t matter if I was at shortstop, or second base, or watching from the bench. I would have been proud no matter what.

But at the same time, as an athlete, you want to play. You always want to play. So when I was given the opportunity to win the job at second base, I took it seriously. I worked hard. I made adjustments. I tried to treat it like a new beginning. And it paid off: After losing the shortstop job in August, I .426 in September at second base. Out of all of my accomplishments as a Cub, that is the one I hope people talk about when they look back on my career: That in a situation where some players would have checked out, I kept my head up and work even harder. I didn’t just say, “I want to help the team win.” I actually helped the team win.

How do you not respect a guy like that?

After mentioning how the Yankees - and players like Carlos Beltran and icon - have welcomed him to New York, Castro ended his open letter perfectly:

To my new city, New York, I can promise you this: You are acquiring a player who just got to experience a pennant race for the first time — and loved it.

And to my old city, Chicago, I want to thank you for such an amazing experience. I’ll always hold Chicago close to my heart. And hey — maybe I’ll still visit sometime.

How’s October?

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