Sosa says he never failed test for PEDs
Former Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa deflected questions regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs, twice referencing that he never tested positive for steroids during his MLB career, and made his case for induction into the Hall of Fame in an interview on Monday morning with a Chicago radio station.
The interview came on the heels of the ESPN documentary “Long Gone Summer,” which chronicled the 1998 home run chase between Sosa and Mark McGwire, who later admitted to using steroids during his MLB career.
“I don’t want to get in other peoples’ business,” Sosa said during an appearance on the “Mully & Haugh Show” on Chicago’s 670 The Score. “But talking about myself, I haven’t tested positive. I always play every day. I play pretty much 162 games every (year). I was healthy pretty much all of the time. You look at my record, I did it in the field. That’s a question. Let’s see what happens. I haven’t tested positive. My case is not too hard to deal with.”
Sosa’s answer — that he never failed a test for PEDs — echoes responses he’s given in the recent past. In a 2018 interview with ESPN’s Jeremy Schapp, Sosa said he “never had a failed test in the country” and “never missed any test at the major league level.” Schapp asked again if he ever used PEDs, and Sosa said, “Never.” And asked a third specific question, Sosa responded, “Once again, I never tested positive.”
The New York Times reported in 2009 that Sosa did test positive for a performance-enhancing drug in an a 2003 conducted by the MLB that allowed players to remain anonymous. In 2005, Sosa testified under oath before Congress at a public hearing that he had never taken any illegal PEDs.
Asked about the current era of power-focused baseball, which saw batters combine for a league-record 6,776 home runs during the 2019 season, Sosa joked that “probably it was the ball that was the one that was juiced, not us.” “You know what I mean? Last year, everyone came out of nowhere hitting home runs left and right. It’s a different era.”
Sosa also made a case for reversing his slim odds for making the Hall of Fame, which saw him draw 55 votes, or 13.9 per cent of voters, on the 2020 ballot. That represented a slight uptick from 2019, when Sosa was named on just 8.5 per cent of ballots. Eligible players must receive at least 75 per cent of the vote for induction. Sosa has two more years on the ballot.
Sosa ended his career following the 2007 season with 2,408 hits and 609 home runs, good for ninth on the all-time list. He was the MVP in 1998, when he and McGwire battled for the single-season home run record.
“I see players, they don’t have the kind of numbers that I have,” Sosa said in the interview. “They have much better votes of the writers treat those people much better than me. That’s a question I ask myself, like, why I don’t get more recognition when it comes to the voting.
“The numbers don’t lie, you know. I played every day. I played hard every day. I did everything that I had to do. Of course I belong to the Hall of Fame.”