He
was “God” in this town at one time, second only to Michael Jordan. He was even
the big superduperstar of Chicago who brought glory upon all of our city from
baseball fans around the globe.
THERE
WERE THOSE who back then talked trash about Sosa’s legacy – although those
people were usually dismissed as bitter Chicago White Sox fans who couldn’t
stand the fact that Sammy’s home runs and Chico Escuela-inspired routines were
putting all the attention on Chicago’s other ballclub.
Now,
just about everybody wants to talk trash about Sosa – who in his first round of
being on the ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame only got 12 percent of the
vote (far short of the 75 percent standard required for induction).
The
annual Cubs Convention held in January to build up interest and inspire people
to keep buying tickets to ballgames hasn’t included Sosa in its program since
he left the ballclub after 2004 – or baseball overall following 2007.
Which
is why I found it intriguing that Cubs team Chairman Tom Ricketts made comments
on Saturday implying that the day will come when Sosa will be rehabilitated
enough to be allowed to appear in public on behalf of the ballclub.
HE
TALKED OF “put(ting) this chapter to rest” and “welcom(ing) back” the guys who
played professionally back in the era of a decade ago – which is one we now
suspect involved many ballplayers using anabolic steroids to bolster their
strength and skills on the playing field.
Ricketts
even told reporter-types how “maybe it’s an issue we pick up this year” to make
it possible for Sosa to be seen in Chicago without inspiring the contempt of
Chicago fans.
Or
at least those who persist in root, root, rooting for the Cubbies. White Sox
types are going to grouse no matter what anybody says – in part because they
remember just how mediocre and ego-bloated he was during those couple of
seasons he played at Comiskey Park (and later complained that the ballpark was
too big for his style of play).
Personally,
I believe the White Sox are going to be a factor in how seriously the Cubs go
about trying to rehabilitate Sosa’s “good” name.
FOR
NEXT YEAR will be the first season that the other BIG name of Chicago baseball
from the 1990s gets consideration for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
That
would be “the Big Hurt” himself – Frank Thomas – who may never have hit 60 or
more home runs in a single season three times like Sosa did, but had his share
of power combined with the ability to hit for a decent batting average AND not
strike out so often.
There
are those who think Thomas, along with Atlanta Braves pitcher Greg Maddux are
the likely Hall of Fame inductees for 2014.
You
just know the Cubs-types are going to become infuriated at so much attention
being paid to a White Sox star (and two-time Most Valuable Player), along with
the reminders of how Maddux got away because the Cubs didn’t want to pay him –
allowing the Braves to get all those seasons of Cy Young Award-quality play as
they repeatedly contended for championships.
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| Who was Chicago's big baseball star of the '90s? |
THE
CUBS ARE going to need to resurrect what WAS unique about them back in the
1990s to counter that. And that is going to mean looking back fondly on the “fun”
of that era when Sosa put on such a spectacle that people felt the need to go
to Wrigley Field.
I
don’t expect the Wrigley crowd to start openly admitting that the best Chicago
ballplayer of the ‘90s played the bulk of his career at 35th Street
and Shields Avenue.
A
fact that, for the time being, too many people seem determined to cover up in
the same way the Soviet Union of old used to like to rewrite their history to
get rid of the moments that didn’t fit in with the image they preferred to
project.
Let’s
be honest. There is a whole generation of people who felt compelled to go to
Cubs games solely so they could say, “I saw Sammy Sosa hit a home run!” A fact
they now utter with a mere whisper.
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