On May 5, 2000, I attended my first-ever game at the shrine that we all know as Wrigley Field. On that day, the Cubs lost -- they always did in those days -- but Sammy Sosa hit a home run. That was enough for me. It had to be during the Dark Ages of Cubdom.
Never in my wildest dreams did I envision that four years and three months later, I would be attending a game at the same Wrigley and hearing boos rain down on this symbol of Chicago baseball, and I certainly did not guess that the same symbol would be traded for a borderline regular and two minor leaguers.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, professional sports -- where no one is safe.
Of course, as we all know, Sammy Sosa -- probably the greatest player ever to don a Cubs uniform -- was traded to Baltimore on Feb. 2 for Jerry Hairston Jr. and two minor league players. But that was not even the most shocking development of that week. When news broke the previous Friday that the deal was in place and awaited approval from the union and commissioner Bud Selig, seemingly the entire population of the baseball forum that I am a member of was pleased, some even joyous. These same people had been calling for the trading of Sosa all year, but I took the opinion that people say dumb things when they're venting and assumed that they weren't serious. I was horribly shocked to find out that I was in the minority among fans who wanted Sammy Sosa to finish out his career as a Cub.
Certainly, trading Sosa was an attractive possibility. After all, Sammy did leave the final game of the season, after the Cubs had already been eliminated from the playoffs, in the first inning. And yes, he did say he left during the seventh inning. It was, however, the act of a frustrated star. Sammy had been receiving the blame from Cubs fans the entire season for the underachieving performance of the team. Fans won't admit it, but by booing only Sosa -- not the horrendous bullpen, not the offense that went so silent in September that the starters would pitch eight innings and give up two runs and expect to lose, not any of the questionable decisions made by manager Dusty Baker -- the fans were saying, "We blame Sammy for this," whether they meant to or not.
In hindsight, the frustrated comments Sammy made publicly about a month after the season, in which he claimed to have been disrespected by Dusty Baker and indirectly blamed for his team's failures, make a lot more sense. Sosa was receiving a disproportionate amount of the frustration that came out of missing the playoffs.
After the trade that sent this Chicago icon away from his city, Sosa showed one last display of his class, which was never fully appreciated, by taking out a full-page ad in both major Chicago papers, thanking Cubs fans for their support over the last 13 years, but he received no such send-off in return.
Good-bye Sammy. Chicago will miss you.
Write to Andy at ndistops@hotmail.com
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