Sosa Finally Announces Retirement

By Marcus Gilmer in Miscellaneous on Jun 4, 2009 2:40PM

Former Cub, dangerous sneezer, and corker - not to mention prolific home run hitter - Sammy Sosa claims he will soon announce his formal retirement from baseball. Sosa hasn't played a game since 2007 when he was with the Texas Rangers. As to the question on everyone's minds - did he use performance-enhancing drugs - Sosa side-stepped the issue, saying:

"I always played with love and responsibility and I assure you that I will not answer nor listen to rumors. If anything ugly comes up in the future, we will confront it immediately, but with all our strength because I will not allow anybody to tarnish what I did in the field."

And in an era when Mark McGwire can't get inducted into the Hall of Fame - even though he's never tested positive for any PEDs - Sosa is extremely confident about what he sees as his impending H.O.F. induction: "I will calmly wait for my induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Don't I have the numbers to be inducted?"

The thing is...yes. Yes he does. We echo the sentiments of ESPN's Bill Simmons: the Hall of Fame is a museum; it's meant to encapsulate the good and the bad. Did either McGwire or Sosa use PEDs? We don't know. We know what we suspect - and to a life-long McGwire fan like myself, it's heartbreaking - but the fact is, they've never tested positive. Suspicion is not enough to keep them out. Are we supposed to pretend it didn't happen? We'll end our rant there since it could continue as long as Sosa's shadow lingers in right field at Wrigley. [ESPNChicago]