{"id":27234,"date":"2025-01-18T14:08:38","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T14:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=27234"},"modified":"2025-01-18T14:08:38","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T14:08:38","slug":"column-sammy-sosa-hogs-the-spotlight-at-the-cubs-convention-but-jed-hoyers-future-remains-a-hot-topics-for-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=27234","title":{"rendered":"Column: Sammy Sosa hogs the spotlight at the Cubs Convention, but Jed Hoyer\u2019s future remains a hot topics for fans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A \u201cvery special\u201d edition of the Cubs Convention kicked off Friday with the return of Sammy Sosa from Cubbie exile after 20 years, the introduction of new star Kyle Tucker and powder blue alternate jerseys and the same old hopes and dreams of the last 39 years.<\/p>\n

Sosa was the focus of Friday\u2019s opening ceremony, sucking in all the attention like an imploding star, but there were many pressing topics to discuss aside from His Sammyness, such as President Jed Hoyer, who enters the final year of his contract without any job certainty beyond 2025.<\/p>\n

Hoyer was asked whether he has spoken with Chairman Tom Ricketts about his future.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy future with the Cubs, or with life?\u201d Hoyer asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll just keep that between us,\u201d he said, referring to him and Ricketts, not him and me.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, I\u2019m aware that that\u2019s a topic. I\u2019ve been asked about it 10 times today. I get it. It\u2019s a topic. But it\u2019s not something I\u2019m concerned about. Let\u2019s just enjoy the season, and if we do have conversations, hopefully, like with a player, we\u2019ll keep that stuff out of the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome around here. This place is great. And I\u2019ll just leave it at that. \u2026 I understand whenever a coach or a president is going into his last year it becomes a significant topic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cubs might want to prepare their goodbye tribute video for late September just in case they don\u2019t make the postseason. Maybe Hoyer can even present himself with a number from the old scoreboard, like the Cubs have done for most of the returning stars from the 2016 champions.<\/p>\n

While Hoyer\u2019s fate is uncertain, the return of Sosa brought some new life to an often stale product \u2014 the annual Cubs Convention.<\/p>\n

\"Column:
Young Cubs fans cheer for Cubs mascot Clark before the opening ceremony of the Cubs Convention at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk on Jan. 17, 2025. (John J. Kim\/Chicago Tribune)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The John McDonough creation, which has ignited a slew of copycats since the inaugural fan fest in 1986, is a marketing tool like no other, changing little over the years. But this weekend\u2019s convention has the dual purpose of selling the 2025 Cubs and rebooting the Sosa legend after an acrimonious ending in 2004.<\/p>\n

Sosa and Derrek Lee were voted into the Cubs Hall of Fame after Sosa was snubbed for years by the Baseball Hall of Fame voters.<\/p>\n

Sosa\u2019s carefully choreographed admittance of \u201cmistakes\u201d made during the steroid era opened the door to his return Friday to the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk, as if Napoleon were granted a reprieve from exile in St. Helena to go sign autographs at the Waterloo Inn.<\/p>\n

Cubs fans greeted Sosa with cheers and only a smattering of boos, which were drown out by the\u00a0loud\u00a0applause. Ricketts was booed more for being Ricketts.<\/p>\n

Sosa could have expected some blowback. He\u2019s not entirely loved, though the taint of alleged PED use has worn off over the years. He\u2019s used to being booed on occasion. At the 2001 Cubs Convention, Sosa drew jeers during a contract dispute with Tribune Co. ownership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a free country,\u201d he told reporters afterward.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still a free country, at least for a couple of more days. Check back Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Sosa\u2019s return from exile marked the start of a relationship between the former slugger and the Cubs\u2019 owners, the Ricketts family. While co-owner Todd Ricketts was planning an inauguration party in Washington for President-elect Trump along with Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg, his brother, Tom, was left back in Chicago to welcome home Sosa, dining with him Thursday at a downtown steakhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody\u2019s perfect,\u201d Ricketts said last month in a statement inviting Sosa to the convention. \u201cBut we never doubted his passion for the game and the Cubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for making money, which will no doubt be enhanced by Sosa\u2019s return after the long estrangement.<\/p>\n

\"Column:
Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts, left, and former slugger Sammy Sosa greet during the opening ceremony of the Cubs Convention at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk on Jan. 17, 2025. (John J. Kim\/Chicago Tribune)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Sosa conundrum has been an annual narrative at the Cubs Convention for well over a decade. Eventually, Tom and his sister, co-owner Laura Ricketts, stopped their Q-and-A sessions with fans to avoid answering repetitive questions about when Sosa would return.<\/p>\n

Sosa helped enrich the former Cubs owners for several years before his famous fall from grace, which came to an end when he exited Wrigley Field before the start of the final regular-season game of the ill-fated 2004 season. The Chicago Sun-Times reported then that Sosa had left in the seventh inning, and Sosa told the paper he was being made a scapegoat for the team\u2019s collapse.<\/p>\n

The Cubs answered the next day with the smoking gun \u2014 informing the media that their parking-lot video revealed Sosa had left at 1:35 p.m., or in the first inning.<\/p>\n

Checkmate.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a few years ago he was almost like a king here,\u201d former manager Dusty Baker said after the controversy. \u201cThat just shows you how quickly things change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sosa quickly became persona non grata. A highlight of Sosa shown during the convention\u2019s opening ceremony in 2005 elicited a loud chorus of boos, and he was soon dealt to the Baltimore Orioles, never returning to Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n

Former Tribune columnist David Kaplan and media personality David Haugh scheduled an interview with Sosa in Florida in 2014, aided by the Cubs, to try to get him to admit to using PEDs, thus greasing the skids for his return. But Sosa got cold feet and canceled the interview at the last minute, and a reunion seemed impossible without an admission of guilt.<\/p>\n

The situation remained bleak until Sosa appeared at a local charity event last fall and finally made inroads with the Cubs, who were looking to move past the episode before their 150-year birthday celebration in 2026. So the Rickettses\u00a0accepted his admission of unspecified \u201cmistakes\u201d as the de facto \u201capology\u201d for allegedly cheating the game.<\/p>\n

Now the king is back, hanging out with current Cubs players at a North Side blues club. At the media social Friday, Hoyer, manager Craig Counsell and others welcomed the end to the cold war and spoke glowingly of Sosa. Most of his staunchest media critics have either died, retired or left town, with only a handful of reporters on hand Friday who actually covered Sosa in Chicago.<\/p>\n

The Sosa saga will be an afterthought by the time the Cubs begin spring training Feb. 9 in Mesa, Ariz. Now it\u2019s up to the players and Counsell to pump up the team\u2019s chances of ending its four-year playoff drought.<\/p>\n

With the defending National League Central champion Milwaukee Brewers having lost star shortstop Willy Adames to free agency and also trading All-Star closer Devin Williams to the New York Yankees, is it the Cubs\u2019 division to lose?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t look at like that,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cI look at it like \u2018Get your team ready to play and let\u2019s go.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Ready or not, the Cubs were back, and Sosa was in the house.<\/p>\n

It almost felt normal again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend\u2019s Cubs Convention has the dual purpose of selling the 2025 Cubs and rebooting the Sammy Sosa legend after an acrimonious ending in 2004.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":27235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nColumn: Sammy Sosa hogs the spotlight at the Cubs Convention, but Jed Hoyer\u2019s future remains a hot topics for fans - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=27234\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Column: Sammy Sosa hogs the spotlight at the Cubs Convention, but Jed Hoyer\u2019s future remains a hot topics for fans - 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