Cubs rumors: Snell-Montgomery connection, Cody Bellinger latest, Sammy Sosa admission

Cubs Rumors: Sammy Sosa responds to being left out of Hall of Fame

With another round of Baseball Hall of Fame voting in the books and the new inductees set, the like-clockwork discussion of the PED and steroid era of MLB has started to come around again. This time every year, fans and analysts alike debate the merit of the players who were stars of that era but have seemingly been blocked from ever entering Cooperstown. As such, Chicago Cubs great Sammy Sosa often enters the discussion.

Sosa saw virtually any chance of entering the Hall of Fame go by the wayside two years ago after his 10 years on the ballot ran out. That doesn't entirely exclude him forever, but it does make it substantially less likely that he'll ever get his plaque in Cooperstown. But Sosa spoke to that near-fact this past week and had a pretty strong statement on the matter, via MLB insider Hector Gomez:

"Whatever happens, my achievements and home runs can never be erased from the board. Nothing and no one can erase those numbers. I want to be a Hall of Fame in heaven, not on earth," Sosa said.

It's true that no one can take away those stats from Sosa. He hit 609 home runs with a .273 average for his career, the bulk of which was spent in the Windy City with the Cubs, where he played 13 seasons of his 18 total years in the majors.

Having said that, his link to PEDs and the stigma around that, particularly as it pertains to the Baseball Hall of Fame, create a gray area in the history of our sport. But anyone who was alive for the excitement of the steroid era, during which Sosa won NL MVP with the Cubs in the 1998 season, will remember the greats that shined during that span of the sport.