The End of the Sosa Era in Chicago

Well, it's finally happened. The Cubbies traded Sammy Sosa. It's been on the radar screen for a long time now...perhaps since Sammy walked out of the last game of last season just 15 minutes after the first pitch.
It remains to be seen from a statistical standpoint if the deal with the Baltimore Orioles is a good one for both clubs. The Cubs acquired Jerry Hairston, Jr., plus two minor leaguers in exchange for Sosa (part of whose contract will be paid by the Cubs). I have a strong suspicion that Sosa is going to have a big year next season. Sammy is a phenomenonal talent (irrespective of what some ignorant pundits will say when referring to Steroid abuse). Even despite his "off year" last year, Sosa still was among the leaders in numerous categories, hitting 35 HRs (at a rate of 1 HR/13 plate appearances) despite missing over a month of the season. More important than Sosa's physical ability is the strength of his character and work ethic. While Sosa seems to have a fragile ego, he also seems driven to find the accolades and love he once received from fans in every park. Indeed, having watched the large majority of the Cubs game for the last 3 seasons, I've always felt that more than any other player I've ever watched, Sosa seems to feed off the energy of the fans around him. He wants, it seems, to make fans like him and cheer for him. He knows that to do this he must perform, and so I don't doubt that he is driven to return to the days of glory he once enjoyed. I expect big things from Sosa next season.
The Cubs pick up an excellent utilityman in Hairston, and I expect that he could very well provide a needed spark to the Cubs run production. I would've liked to see the Cubs pick up closer Jorge Julio in the deal, but I'll defer to Cubs GM Jim Hendry's abilities and assume that it simply wasn't possible. Once I've had a chance to analyze the minor leaguers the Cubs picked up, I'll have a better idea how balanced the deal is.

More than anything though, I think the whole affair is a sad one in Cubs history. Perhaps because of recent success, Cub fans seemed to have changed. Once savvy, intelligent, and reasonable, I feel like that as the ranks of Cubbydom have swelled with success, the quality and intelligence of the fan base has diminished. Now, there has never been any inherent baseball intelligence gained from living in Chicago (the fact that White Sox fans booed Frank Thomas for grounding into a double play at a time when he was leading the league in batting is evidence enough of that). However, perhaps because to be a true die-hard fan of Chicago given the futility and disappointment in their history, you had to educate yourself to the game, Cubs fans have a long history of reasonableness, intelligence, and good sportsmanship (Now before someone emails me to remind me of battery-throwing or other ignoble instances, let me say that I don't mean to say that the Cub fans never have failings or lowpoints; they do, but we also have numerous high points, as for example the behavior of Cub-nation following the death of Cardinal Darryl Kile in Chicago, during a crucial series against our biggest rival. In general, the positive moments far outweigh the low points.) Getting back to my point, success has bred a breakdown in Cub fans ability to intelligently analyze the game. The symptoms of this are evident in the treatment that Sammy Sosa received in Chicago this last year. The frustration Cub fans felt at the underperformance of the Cubs seemed to finally focus solely on Sammy's performance. Now, certainly Sosa's status (often self-proclaimed) as the "heart of the team" made him a focal point, however pinning everything that went wrong with the Cubs on Sosa was certainly unfair. He didn't, afterall, have any role in the injuries that occurred, he didn't have any role in the poor performance of the bullpen, and he certainly didn't cause the rest of the lineup to decide to have their bats take an early off-season with 6 games left in the season. Indeed, the only thing that one might be "critical" of Sosa is that he failed to undertake a Herculean feat of carrying the team single-handedly as he had in the past. Yet the boos continued to build with each downturn the Cubs took. Cub fans seemed to be unwilling to accept that Sosa wasn't a mythical, indomitable figure as he had once appeared. He was simply a ballplayer that for a variety of reasons, was having an "off" yet still relatively successful season.
Now, clearly Sosa does bear some culpability for the speed in which things soured. Sosa's personality and ego clearly worsened the atmosphere in Wrigley, as he became defensive and quick to complain. Yet graciousness in the face of overwhelming criticism is an uncommon virtue; especially when the criticism is largely unjustified. Sosa obviously doesn't possess it; is it fair castigate him for lacking a skill most people also lack? I would argue that we that we can lament that he didn't have it. But no one can expect or demand that he posses it.
As Jayson Stark argues on ESPN.com today, Sammy Sosa was "good for baseball...and good for the Chicago Cubs." His stats for the last 6 or 7 years were nothing short of astronomical. Above all, the enthusiasm that he brought to the field, and the electricity that it created all around Wrigley, the greater Chicago area, and the country as a whole, helped recapture the greatest game our country has ever known. It's unfortunate that Sammy will be remembered in Chicago for what went wrong. For much of his tenure as a Cub, Sammy embodied all that was right with our game, our ballclub, and our temperament as a nation. I wish him well in Baltimore.