Years after fans grew concerned for baseball icon Sammy Sosa after his skin looked noticeably whiter than normal, he looked significantly different at a rare public appearance in California.The 57-year-old former slugger smiled for cameras at The Pump Group’s VIP Summer Soiree at Gravitas social club in Beverly Hills.Sosa flashed a smile and a peace sign while wearing a royal-blue jacket and black zip-up shirt.He looked significantly different from a red carpet appearance at Miami’s Art Basel in 2017 where Sosa’s skin tone was significantly lighter.The former Cubs star previously chalked that up to a skin bleaching cream, which he defended the use of in 2018.’Look at what I am today. This is my life, and I don’t take garbage from nobody,’ the former baseball star told Sports Illustrated that year. ‘I do whatever I want.’ Cubs icon Sammy Sosa was spotted at a gala in Beverly Hills on Wednesday evening Sosa’s complexion differed from his days (above, 2020) where he wore a bleaching cream Sosa’s visage looked notably different from his playing days in the 1990s and 2000sMeanwhile, the star’s oldest son – Sammy Jr, now age 29 – told the magazine at the time that the conversation about his dad’s skin tone ‘doesn’t affect him,’ but acknowledged, ‘I’m sure he feels a certain way.”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 don’t affect you at all?’ Sammy Jr said.Sammy Jr added, ‘He’s a really closed-off person, even with me. He doesn’t mean to be. There are some things I don’t know about my dad that I wonder about.’Sosa’s appearance began changing in 2009 when he showed up at the Latin Grammys with a lighter complexion. He told Univision’s Primer Impacto at the time that he was using ‘a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed and whitens my skin some.”It’s a cream that I have, that I use to soften [my skin], but has bleached me some,’ he said. ‘I’m not a racist, I live my life happily. 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. I don’t think I look like Michael Jackson.’