Rex Hudler Posted June 28, 2003 Share Posted June 28, 2003 Sammy in The Cell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CubKilla Posted June 28, 2003 Share Posted June 28, 2003 I got a registration pop-up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doubleM23 Posted June 28, 2003 Share Posted June 28, 2003 From the Chicago Tribune, courtesy of chicagosports.com. Orignally published June 28, 2003 Sox fans give Sosa a reality jolt by Rick Morrissey The place to begin with Sammy Sosa, the starting point from which everything else flows, is love. If you understand that Sosa believes he is universally loved, then you understand all there is to understand about Sammy, the romantic, somewhat delusional lug. He is under the impression that most everyone, aside from a few subversives on his enemies list, thinks he is a swell guy. He has been on the receiving end of the world's affirmation and, giving soul that he is, always has volleyed it back, if you'll pardon the athletic mixed metaphor. OK, fine: In Sammy's mind, this relationship has been a game of pitch and catch. What happened Friday on the South Side was so far removed from Sosa's experience that it might have rocked him off his feet if he had been a lesser gladiator, a run-of-the-mill warrior or, God forbid, a mere baseball player. If everybody loves him, then White Sox fans at The Sell sure had a strange way of showing it. Maybe this was that tough love Sosa has heard about. He wore ear plugs during batting practice, and maybe the funniest thing about it was that no one was sure whether it was a joke. He was in for a day of abuse, and ear plugs are more effective than putting a finger in each ear and humming, which is murder during fly balls. Longtime students of Sammy knew Friday that the show wasn't really in the stands, wasn't in the boos or on the hand-written signs. It was in the way the abuse worked on Sosa, how it got under his thin skin, how it pierced him at some level. He simply is not a guy used to this sort of treatment. When he struck out swinging with the bases loaded in the fifth inning, you would have thought that many in the crowd of 45,147 were in the midst of a religious experience. And maybe they were. When he struck out swinging again in the seventh, after the Sox had walked Corey Patterson intentionally to get to Sosa, it seemed possible The Sell would come tumbling down from all the seismic activity. Both times Sosa walked so slowly to the Cubs' dugout, with jeers spilling down the stands at him, he wouldn't have made it to Archer Avenue by nightfall at the rate he was going. When Jose Valentin hit his walk-off home run in the ninth and the crowd roared in celebration of a 4-3 Sox victory, well, those were the roars Sosa thought were usually reserved for him. "I think he was fine—you'll have to ask him," teammate Moises Alou said of Sosa's reaction to all the nastiness. No matter what Sammy says—and he isn't saying a lot during his media boycott—the reception had to hurt him to his core. On Friday, all the bad things he would prefer to forget swirled into this park and dumped right on top of him. Sox fans hate him for being an underachiever when he played for their team and a wildly successful player when he was traded to the Cubs. They hate him for being all that is sappy about the Cubs. They hate his heart taps. They hate his home run hop. But now they have a corked-bat conviction on him. If I might summarize their feelings, they don't quite believe in the mistaken batting-practice bat. Sosa has been living with the notion that most everyone agrees the corking was a one-time offense, but he will be reminded again and again during the weekend series that there are a good number of people who don't believe in his innocence. Sosa is tired of answering questions about the controversy and angry with the Chicago Sammy-Times, which has been his longtime protector, for quoting him as saying racism played a part in the huge reaction to the scandal. This is a guy who, for the longest time, believed everyone reveled in his essential Samminess. If he did something special, they were with him. If he didn't, they forgave him. Friday's crowd was an altogether different animal, a nasty beast that wouldn't mind weapons inspectors checking his bats on a regular basis. Imagine his surprise now. Wait until the All-Star Game at the new, old, whatever-you-want-to-call-it Comiskey Park. Wait until the Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game. Sosa takes the derby as seriously as a panelist would at a symposium on international trade restrictions. A worldwide TV audience will hear some boos and wonder where the love went. Deep down, so will Sosa. By then, he likely will be talking again. Wonder if he'll still be listening. Email: [email protected] Copyright © 2003, The Chicago Tribune Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doubleM23 Posted June 28, 2003 Share Posted June 28, 2003 The usual from Morissey... Cheap shots at the Sox and the amazing discovery that Sox fans don't like Sammy. No s***, Rick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPinStripes Posted June 28, 2003 Share Posted June 28, 2003 I love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YASNY Posted June 28, 2003 Share Posted June 28, 2003 Cheap shots? It depends on how you read it. Reading that article made me proud to be a Sox Fan!!! Sox fans giving Sosa a razzing like he's never seen before just about brings tears to my eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted June 28, 2003 Share Posted June 28, 2003 The usual from Morissey... Cheap shots at the Sox and the amazing discovery that Sox fans don't like Sammy. No s***, Rick. That whole thing was tounge in cheek. The point of the article is that Sammy is weakminded and we get to him. Look at his history during the series at Comiskey. In all the years I can think of he has had one big AB, and that was when he HRd to tie a game off of Foulke, that we won in 14 innings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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