Baseball icon Sammy Sosa made a uncommon public look in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, August 19.
Sosa, 57, smiled for cameras at The Pump Group’s VIP Summer season Soiree at Gravitas social membership, trying noticeably totally different from an notorious pink carpet look practically a decade in the past. He flashed a peace signal whereas carrying a pointy royal-blue blazer over a black zip-up shirt with a pink, white and black striped collar paired with darkish denims.
The previous Chicago Cubs slugger had a decidedly lighter pores and skin tone when he was photographed at Miami’s Artwork Basel in 2017, which he had beforehand chalked as much as a pores and skin bleaching cream.
“Have a look at what I’m at present. That is my life, and I don’t take rubbish from no one,” Sosa instructed Sports activities Illustrated in 2018 when requested about his pores and skin colour. “I do no matter I would like.”
Sammy’s oldest son, Sammy Jr., now 29, instructed the journal on the time that dialog about his father’s pores and skin tone “doesn’t have an effect on him,” but in addition acknowledged, “I’m certain he feels a sure approach.”
“Like, ‘Man, I gave so a few years and a lot laborious be just right for you guys, and now you wish to undermine all that due to some choices I’m making — some private choice that don’t have an effect on you in any respect?’” Sammy Jr. stated.
Sammy Sosa attends The Pump Group VIP Summer season Soiree at Gravitas on August 19, 2026 in Beverly Hills, California. Arnold Turner/Getty Photographs for The Pump Group
Sammy Jr. added, “He’s a very closed-off individual, even with me. He doesn’t imply to be. There are some issues I don’t learn about my dad that I ponder about.”
The previous baseball star’s look first stirred up dialog in 2009, when he appeared on the Latin Grammys with a lighter complexion than he had in his enjoying days. Sammy performed his final MLB sport in 2007.
Sammy instructed Univision’s Primer Impacto on the time that it was the results of “a bleaching cream that I apply earlier than going to mattress and whitens my pores and skin some.”
“It’s a cream that I’ve, that I take advantage of to melt [my skin], however has bleached me some,” he stated. “I’m not a racist, I dwell my life fortunately. What occurred was that I had been utilizing the cream for a very long time and that, mixed with the brilliant TV lights, made my face look whiter than it truly is. I don’t suppose I appear like Michael Jackson.”
In December 2024, Sammy issued a press release to followers wherein he apologized to baseball followers, extensively thought of to be an admission of steroid use throughout his profession.
“I perceive why some gamers in my period don’t at all times get the popularity our stats deserve,” Sosa stated. “There have been instances I did no matter I may to recuperate from accidents in an effort to maintain my power as much as carry out over 162 video games. I by no means broke any legal guidelines. However in hindsight, I made errors and I apologize.”
