11/01/2004 11:00:00 AM by Rob

Just Cut him

So, Sammy Sosa is sitting at home, complaining that he was mistreated last year when Dusty Baker moved his .249 average down in the six hole, that his "nearly six hundred" homeruns earned him the respect of Perpetual Cleanup Hitter.

Now, you all KNOW what I think of such a proclamation. It would be kind of piling on for me to write 500 swear words about the cheating pusdick right now. It wouldn't be right, though, if I didn't point out several major reasons why Sammy's account at the First National Bank of Trust is overdrawn:

1) He is a known cheater
2) He is a clubhouse nuisance, at best. Some might call him a Cancer, or a coach-killer.
3) He has never been a fundamentally sound ballplayer, even in his best years
4) He is at the age where most players accept a lesser role.
5) His best years are, as of now, three years ago, and are NEVER coming back.
6) His off-field activities are quite shady, above the norm shady, from the failure of his charitable organization, to the sweat-shop crooks he associates with.
7) He has not led by example, putting himself ABOVE the team, working our way back from the last game fiasco, to his perpetual late arrivals for spring training, to corkgate, to his charter plane fiasco of 2002, blowing off CubFest, etc, etc, all the way back to socking his wife with a rum-bottle.
8) His salary negotiations are always public, rancorous, and confrontational.
9) Finally, and of most importance to ME at the present moment, is that he is a one-dimensional player, a .250 hitter, a strikeout king, who happens to bop one every four games or so, who has more minuses than plusses rightnow.

And what is the net effect of his latest complaining? It lessens his trade value, which HURTS the Cubs, and HELPS any trade partners the Cubs may have. He is burning any bridges left standing, and it becomes more clear every day that he must go elsewhere. This makes Hendry's job harder, and forces him to be much more clever than if Sosa hadn't shot off his big ugly mouth. Is it really worth taking someone else's bad actor to get rid of him? Is he really going to come back and bite us someday, without taking steroids?

I know the idea of eating $18 million is beyond the realm of possibility, when it comes to the Tribune, but looking at it from a strictly competitive standpoint, we would be better WITHOUT him and WITHOUT someone else's headache, then with either one. We'll never pull off another Turd-for-Grud and Karros trade again.

If I were Hendry, I'd stick my balls out, cut Sosa, and promise to resign if the club didn't win the pennant this year.

Of course, that's a lot to ask of a man, doing his dream job.

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