Say it Ain't So, Sosa....actually say it is

*****Cubs Rant Alert, Cubs Rant Alert***** (my new warning to anyone who actually reads this nonsense blog that this will be a long, impassioned rant by a long (hehe), impassioned Cubs fan)

Hey all. Well it looks like the Sammy Sosa days in Chicago are just about over and as a dedicated (i.e. hopeless) Cubs fan, I say good riddance! Anyone who has ever been around me enough on long summer days knows that I may be the one Chicago Cubs fan who really dislikes Sosa and is annoyed by his very presence on the Northside. I'm sick of his unjust tirades, his awful work ethic, his annoying homerun hop, the endless strikeouts, the clipped English (even though he's been playing forever). and just about everything else.
Now I will be completely honest, there was a time when I was even charmed by the Dominican boy made good, the always friendly and smiling guy who matched Big Mac in the magical '98 Home Run race. The Cub who would always run out to right field and salute the epically drunk Bleacher Bums. But that was about four idiotic epidsodes and 1000 strikeouts ago.
The Sosa of the present has exposed himself as just one more rich, selfish, out of touch mega-millionaire athlete who can't handle not being the center of attention. I don't despise Sammy because of the falling numbers, the ever growing impatience at the plate, or even the humiliating bat corked incident (which I tire of being lorded over me by always smug Cardinal fans). I can't fault the coming of age....that is not why I boo Sosa and want him as far from Wrigleyville as humanly possible. No no...its the unbelievable selfishness that has emerged and exposed Sammy as just another sham. I don't idolize athletes...well not since Steve Young retired :-), so its not that I feel jilted or abandoned or betrayed or anything stupid like that.
Sosa simply wore out my welcome by acting like he was more than the Chicago Cubs. Look...I'm not going to argue that the Cubs are a proud franchise or anything...I can't obviously. But this is a young team with unbelievable pitching depth and one of the best farm systems in baseball. GM Jim Hendry is finally trying to build a consistent winner and get rid of that godawful "lovable losers" tag. All a very good thing...unless you wear #21. Sammy simply could not handle NOT BEING the Cubs...as soon as real players with great talent started developing and other jerseys started showing up in the stands at "his" ballpark, he freaked. He cares more about being the center of attention than in building something really special on the corners of Clark and Addison. And this season after hurting himself for months by "sneezing", he was not the same hitter...and the fans let their displeasure show. (which you can agree with or not) Sosa became an automatic out...he stood so far from the plate you could throw a football down the strikezone and he wouldn't hit it. He refused to change his approach and even accept help from his coaches. He choked horribly down the wild card stretch (as did the rest of the team) and just went into a fan-hating, self-obsessed catatonic state.
This was all more than I needed...since I've never liked the man anyway. But even the Cubs and their (blindly) loyal fans had had enough. Sosa sulked about being dropped in the order by manager Dusty Baker, even though it was him who brought the idea to Baker. He later denied this. And then the straw that broke the camel's back. The last game of a lost and painful season....Sosa reported to the ballpark late and then skipped out as it started. He claimed he was there til the 7th inning even though security cameras caught him leaving 20 mins into the game. This is the friggin captain of the Cubs. Would you ever imagine Mr. Cub Ernie Banks doing this, or Stan Musial, or Hank Aaron...hell even infamous Barry Bonds? He left early, quit on his team, and then even had the gall to LIE ABOUT IT.
After this is was just a matter of time...even with the ultra classy Baker and Hendry saying all the right things. And now Sammy Sosa appears to be a Baltimore Oriole....odd fit for the team of Cal Ripken...but just fine for the Cubs and their long-suffering fans. This move might even make the Cubs weaker in the short term... but I am behind it completely, just to be rid of "Smiling" Sammy Sosa and his corked "practice" bats and irritating temper tantrums. Now he is the sole problem for the fans at Camden Yard.
Here is part of an article from Cubs beat writer Gene Wojciechowski who agrees with me (or I guess I agree with since he's more well known and read):

"But it was Sosa's breach of baseball etiquette -- bolting from a game, on the final day, no less -- that further confirmed what Cubs management and many of his own teammates already knew: that the self-proclaimed Gladiator had skin as thin as an ivy leaf, that he was a hypocrite and, worse yet, a liar.
You had to be there that day to understand the betrayal. You could see it in the incredulous expressions of Cubs players as they glanced at his empty pair of locker stalls. Several Sosa jerseys, the ones with C (for team captain) on the elastic sleeves, were still hanging on a metal rod. You could see it as Cubs general manager Jim Hendry tried to compose himself before commenting on Sosa's early departure. You could see it as manager Dusty Baker sighed wearily and said, 'This is a first for me'."
You want to know why Sosa is no longer a Cub? Because he forgot how to take the temperature of a city that can stomach losing but despises frauds. He underestimated the long-term effects of his annual late arrivals to spring training, his no-shows at the yearly Cubs Convention, the 2003 corked-bat incident, the 2004 hissy fits when Baker had no choice but to drop him in the batting order, the ditch-and-lie incident of Oct. 3."

OK, wow....that felt good! Very theraputic for this masochist Cub fan's psyche. Sorry that this was so insanely long...but if you're still reading....well then wow, thank you. :-) I'm flattered you could tough it out. Many more Cub rants to come I'm sure. later!