Goodfellas
06-23-2009, 06:44 PM
CHICAGO (AP) -- Former Chicago Cubs (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/teams/cubs) star Ryne Sandberg says Sammy Sosa doesn't belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
"I don't think so," Sandberg told ESPN Radio 1000 in Chicago on Tuesday. "Part of being in the Hall of Fame, they use the word integrity in describing a Hall of Famer, in the logo of the Hall of Fame, and I think there are going to be quite a few players that are not going to get in."
The New York Times last week reported that Sosa was one of 104 players who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in an anonymous 2003 survey, while he was with the Cubs. A congressional committee is looking into the allegations.
Sosa and Mark McGwire captivated the nation with their 1998 battle to break Roger Maris' season record of 61 homers. McGwire set the mark while Sosa finished with 66. He followed up by hitting 63, 50, 64, and 49 homers in his next four years, and hit 40 more in 2003, a season in which he was caught using a corked bat in front of his home crowd at Wrigley Field.
During a 2005 hearing before Congress, Sosa sat alongside Rafael Palmeiro, Jose Canseco and McGwire and testified: "To be clear, I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs." He said he had not broken the law in the U.S. or his native Dominican Republic.
Sandberg said he was "blinded" to Sosa's alleged doping, saying: "I figured he was working out hard during the offseason to get bigger." He also said he doesn't support a special section in the Hall of Fame for those who doped.
Sandberg played 16 major league seasons, all but one with the Cubs, and hit 282 homers while batting .285. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005 and is current manager of the Cubs' Double-A Tennessee Smokies in Sevierville, Tenn.
"I don't think so," Sandberg told ESPN Radio 1000 in Chicago on Tuesday. "Part of being in the Hall of Fame, they use the word integrity in describing a Hall of Famer, in the logo of the Hall of Fame, and I think there are going to be quite a few players that are not going to get in."
The New York Times last week reported that Sosa was one of 104 players who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in an anonymous 2003 survey, while he was with the Cubs. A congressional committee is looking into the allegations.
Sosa and Mark McGwire captivated the nation with their 1998 battle to break Roger Maris' season record of 61 homers. McGwire set the mark while Sosa finished with 66. He followed up by hitting 63, 50, 64, and 49 homers in his next four years, and hit 40 more in 2003, a season in which he was caught using a corked bat in front of his home crowd at Wrigley Field.
During a 2005 hearing before Congress, Sosa sat alongside Rafael Palmeiro, Jose Canseco and McGwire and testified: "To be clear, I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs." He said he had not broken the law in the U.S. or his native Dominican Republic.
Sandberg said he was "blinded" to Sosa's alleged doping, saying: "I figured he was working out hard during the offseason to get bigger." He also said he doesn't support a special section in the Hall of Fame for those who doped.
Sandberg played 16 major league seasons, all but one with the Cubs, and hit 282 homers while batting .285. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005 and is current manager of the Cubs' Double-A Tennessee Smokies in Sevierville, Tenn.