Years after Sammy Sosa’s changing appearance became a major topic among baseball fans, the former Chicago Cubs slugger stepped back into the public eye looking noticeably different from some of the images that once fueled the conversation.
Sosa, 57, attended The Pump Group’s VIP Summer Soiree at the Gravitas social club in Beverly Hills, California, where he posed for photographers in a royal-blue jacket over a black zip-up shirt.
The retired baseball star appeared relaxed in front of the cameras, smiling broadly and flashing a peace sign during the rare public outing.
But it was Sosa’s complexion that was likely to catch the attention of longtime fans familiar with the questions that have followed him for years.
A Noticeable Change From His 2017 Appearance
His appearance in Beverly Hills differed significantly from his much-discussed appearance at Miami’s Art Basel in 2017, when photographs showed Sosa with a considerably lighter skin tone.
Sosa has never exactly dodged the subject.
He previously explained that he had used a skin-bleaching cream and defended that personal decision during a 2018 interview with Sports Illustrated.
“Look at what I am today. This is my life, and I don’t take garbage from nobody,” Sosa told the magazine. “I do whatever I want.”
His oldest son, Sammy Sosa Jr., also addressed the attention surrounding his father’s appearance at the time. Sammy Jr., now 29, said the public discussion did not affect his father, though he acknowledged there was probably more going on beneath the surface.
“I’m sure he feels a certain way,” Sammy Jr. said.
He then offered an idea of how his father might view the scrutiny after spending years as one of baseball’s most recognizable players.
“Like, ‘Man, I gave so many years and so much hard work for you guys, and now you want to undermine all that because of some decisions I’m making — some personal decision that doesn’t affect you at all?’” he said.
Sammy Jr. Describes His Father as ‘Closed-Off’
Sammy Jr. also described his father as intensely private.
“He’s a really closed-off person, even with me,” he said. “He doesn’t mean to be. There are some things I don’t know about my dad that I wonder about.”
Questions about Sosa’s complexion stretch back well beyond the 2017 photographs.
His changing appearance drew widespread attention in 2009 when he attended the Latin Grammy Awards with noticeably lighter skin. Sosa subsequently discussed the matter with Univision’s “Primer Impacto,” saying a cream he regularly used had lightened his complexion.
“It’s a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed and whitens my skin some,” Sosa said at the time.
Sosa Explained the Skin-Cream Use Years Ago
He explained that he had originally used the product to soften his skin, but it also produced a bleaching effect.
“I’m not a racist, I live my life happily,” Sosa said. “What happened was that I had been using the cream for a long time and that, combined with the bright TV lights, made my face look whiter than it really is.”
He also pushed back against comparisons that were being made at the time, adding, “I don’t think I look like Michael Jackson.”
More than a decade later, Sosa’s Beverly Hills appearance provided another look at the famously private former home-run hitter, this time with a complexion noticeably different from the extremely light appearance that generated so much attention years earlier.
