When the Cubs lost their second to last regular season game of the year, they eliminated themselves from post season contention. In the last game of the year Cubs right field slugger Sammy Sosa was a little upset.Sosa showed up an hour before game time, much later than he is supposed to, and asked manager Dusty Baker to keep him out of the lineup. Baker, being a nice guy, did just that because the game was essentially meaningless now that there was no chance of making the playoffs. The only problem is about ten minutes after the game started Sosa left the clubhouse and went home.
As the Cubs website said, Sosa went AWOL.
The next day in the papers Sosa complained how he felt Baker blamed the Cubs late season collapse solely on him and how he didnít appreciate all the extra pressure he was placing upon him. Sosa added that he stayed until the late innings of the game and left early simply to beat the traffic.
Good arguments if they were true.
I donít know what Baker said to Sosa in the clubhouse, but from everything I have read in the papers all season long, he did nothing but praise Sosa and compliment him on agreeing to move down in the batting order. I never heard Baker point fingers blaming anyone for the late season collapse, but if he did it shouldnít have been at Sosa. The collapse was due to a weak bullpen that gave up leads then lost several key games in extra innings.
Then there is the issue of leaving early. I can understand a player leaving before the ninth inning is over if they didnít play because driving through Wrigleyville after a game is virtually impossible. Unfortunately for Sosa though, security cameras caught him leaving ten minutes after the game started, never to return.
I give the Cubs organization credit for how they handled the situation though. Instead of catering to their overpaid superstar, they stood up to him and let him know they werenít going to accept his behavior. The Cubs fined Sosa one dayís pay. That one dayís pay was an astonishing $87,000.
Think of what $87,000 is worth to most people. That is a heck of a lot of money, but to someone like Sosa who makes $17 million a year, that is only chump change.
I donít know which figure is harder to imagine, $17 million for a years worth of work, or $87,000 for a days worth of work. Either way I think I would be able to live off either one.
Now that Sosa is disgruntled and the Cubs have showed him theyíre not going to take it, there is only one option for them during this off-season. Trade Sosa.
Sosa has one year remaining on his contract and by his performance this year he showed he is on the downside of his career and he wonít be hitting 60 plus home runs again anytime soon. With Aramis Ramirez, Moises Alou and Nomar Garciaparra as free agents, the Cubs are better off trading Sosa for a cheaper, yet decent right fielder so they can spend their savings on resigning three players who were quiet all season long and played their hearts out.
Sosa may have helped save baseball in 1998, but now he is acting like a prima donna and he has to realize baseball is a team sport.
Top of Page
