He hasn’t played in the majors since 2007, but Sammy Sosa still felt it necessary to announce that he will officially announce his retirement soon.

Here are some excerpts from his ESPN Deportes interview on Wednesday.

“Everything I achieved, I did it thanks to my perseverance, which is why I never had any long, difficult moments [as a baseball player]. If you have a bad day in baseball, and start thinking about it, you will have 10 more. I will calmly wait for my induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Don’t I have the numbers to be inducted?

I always played with love and responsibility, and I assure you that I will not answer nor listen to rumors. If anything ugly comes up in the future, we will confront it immediately, but with all our strength, because I will not allow anybody to tarnish what I did in the field.

The scandal on steroids and all those suspensions will not overshadow the game. Currently, there are many Latino players performing well [offensively]. There’s [Albert] Pujols, Carlos Pena; Nelson Cruz has 15. Then what? There’s someone else that already has 22 home runs [Adrian Gonzalez] … we have hit and will continue to hit homers in the Major Leagues.”

Britt Braudo is a Blast contributing editor and sports blogger for Blast Magazine. She can be reached at britt.braudo@gmail.com.