Sammy Sosa escapes Mitchell Report

From The Chicago Tribune

Ryan Jaster @ 1:43 p.m.

For a guy whose name is always listed among the suspected steroid abusers, former Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa has never been directly linked to a scandal. No failed tests. No BALCO. No shady clinics in Florida. No checks to clubhouse attendants moonlighting as drug dealers. No paper trail whatsoever.

Even Jose Canseco had nothing but speculation on Sosa in "Juiced."

And now you can add "No Mitchell Report" to that list.

Sure, his name is in there. Once. On the 133rd page of the 409-page pdf document on our site. And it's only in a reference that he was among several players whose lawyers received questionnaires that were not returned. As is almost always the case with many of the allegations, the names of Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro and Gary Sheffield were listed alongside Sosa's.

But they've all been linked directly to steroids in one way or another. Sosa hasn't.

You can call Sosa a cheater. He is. He used a corked bat. You can keep him out of the Hall of Fame for that if you so choose, but not for steroids.

Sosa just hit 21 home runs for the Texas Rangers on top of 91 RBIs in what eventually became a part-time role in an allegedly "steroid-clear" era. A far cry from his three seasons of 60-plus in four years, no doubt. But he's also 38. In those seasons he was in his peak years between age 29 and 32. His 609 homers puts him in a club with only Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays. And of course Bonds*. A Hall of Fame number for anyone not of this era. Yet it still sounds like he might get the McGwire treatment.

You can criticize Sosa's performance in front of Congress if you like. But I have never understood why he took heat for speaking his native language. If I had to talk to a foreign government I'd certainly speak English, no matter how many years of Spanish classes I might have taken.

It's time to take Sosa out of the shadow of steroids suspicion.

And anyone who thinks otherwise needs to do some investigating and deliver the proof.

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