Chicago Cubs Baseball

There was something poetic in watching the winning hit sail over the head of Chicago Cub outfielder Milton Bradley in yesterday’s 8-7 loss to the crosstown rival White Sox.

Because amidst the hoopla of baseball bragging rights for Chicago it perfectly symbolized Bradley’s relationship with the city.  Since signing a three-year, $30 million contract last January, there’s so much about Chicago Cub baseball that, simply put, is over Bradley’s head.

If there was ever an ill fit for a baseball team or for that matter, a city, Bradley is it.  And the fact that Cubs general manager Jim Hendry was not only able to find the mis-fit, but sell it to the organization is sick genius in itself.

For as much as Bradley doesn’t “get” Cub baseball or the fervor of its fans, Cubdom doesn’t “get” Bradley. Take for example, Bradley’s revelation of his current team and half the city’s adoration for it.

”It’s something else,” Bradley said. ”I played in L.A., and I thought L.A. was over the top, but this is a whole different level. It’s fanatic fans. It’s constant cameras and things. It’s a lot more than you expect. But this is what I signed up for, so I can accept that.”

Memo to Milton: Chicago’s love for Cub baseball is not a new phenomena.  Pull your self-absorbed head out of your helmet and pick up a newspaper.  Watch Sports Center for God’s sake.

Bradley’s utter lack of awareness is why Friday’s much publicized blow-up between Bradley and Cub manager Lou Piniella shouldn’t have come as a surprise.  If anything, I’m confused why more people haven’t asked the question, “What took it so long?”

Take two volatile personalities - one a selfish, underachieving player and the other a demanding, old school manager - toss in a team that’s closer to the bottom of the Central Division standings than it is to the top and the recipe for disaster is just waiting to be served.

Seemingly, everyone in and out of major league baseball knew what the Cubs were getting in Bradley.  Everyone, that is, with the exception of Hendry.  Maybe the Cubs GM just got confused and thought he was Father Flanagan instead of second in command of the team’s baseball operations.

The Cubs are Bradley’s seventh team since breaking into the big leagues in 2000.  Outside of his stint with the Dodgers, Bradley basically bounced from one minor market to another.  Bradley’s trek has gone from Montreal to Cleveland to Los Angeles to Oakland to San Diego to Texas and now, Chicago.

And for the present - and most likely the next two-and-a-half years, the Cubs are stuck with him.  It’s not going to be a pretty stay for him or Cub fans.

With a thud and a yawn Sammy Sosa’s legacy came crashing to the ground like a shattered boom box amid a New York Times report last week the former Chicago Cubs baseball star tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.

That Sosa was found among 104 other players testing positive from a 2003 survey could be considered mildly surprising at best from even the most casual baseball fan.  If anything the Times story confirmed what many, if  not all in and out of baseball, suspected.

And sadly, it’s taken us one more step down the path of wondering - and unfortunately, wanting - to know one simple question. Who else?

Last Tuesday was Sammy’s turn and in no way do I feel a single fiber of remorse that it was Sosa exposed while the majority of those on the list remain in the legal shadows of anonymity.

Such is fate.  And, in my opinion, karma.

Ever since the specter of Sammy’s involvement with PEDs came to the light, he like the majority of others, chose the path of denial.  Surprising? Not in the least.

Sammy, if you remember, was the guy who got caught red-handed using a corked bat and then feigned innocence.

“I use that bat for batting practice,” Sosa claimed at the time. “It’s something that I take the blame for. It’s a mistake, I know that. I feel sorry. I just apologize to everybody that are embarrassed.”

And as Chicago Cub fans - we forgave Sammy.  For if there was one area where Sosa excelled,  it was public relations.  Sammy knew how to play to the crowd.  From his wide smile to blowing kisses to his showing of American patriotism when he carried the American flag around the bases after a home run following the September 11th attacks. it was his offering of a buy-in.  Cub fans gladly accepted.

Eventually, even the best pr machine hits a glitch.  Sammy’s persona began to lose its shine when he testified before the House Government Reform Committee on steroid use in major league baseball.

“To be clear, I have never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs,” Sosa testified in 2005.  “I have never injected myself or had anyone inject me with anything. I have not broken the laws of the United States or the laws of the Dominican Republic. I have been tested as recently as 2004, and I am clean.”

And as recently as June 4th in an interview with with ESPNdeportes.com, Sosa remained firm in his denial of any alleged steroid use.

Maybe it was that one denial too many that set the wheels in motion that led to the Times report and his association with PEDs.  In the end, the release of Sosa’s name was meant to bury him, not to praise him or any of his baseball accomplishments.

Sosa’s reputation is shattered like the boom box some Cub smashed after his final game with Chicago.  Whether history is kind to Sosa, only time will tell.

For this Cub fan, however, the Mighty Casey has struck out.

I’m so old I remember when Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry was a baseball man.  That was a time before he became second in command of one of major league baseball’s top three or four franchises.

Professionally, Hendry’s come a long way from the days as head coach of the Creighton Bluejays.  And no one can blame him for leaving the Creighton program to accept a job in the Bigs.

Creighton plays its home games in a crappy little ballyard not far from campus, and as a private Jesuit university, the college isn’t known for its generosity when it comes to paying its coaches.   Coupled with the fact that Nebraska weather isn’t the most conducive for building a baseball program it was little wonder Hendry parlayed his success, leading the Bluejays to the College World Series to special assistant to Florida Marlins’ GM Dave Dombrowski.

That was 1991 when Hendry was still a baseball man. Now as a business man for a baseball team, Hendry signs players to multi-million dollar contracts and fires the hitting coach when they fail to perform.

That’s how far Hendry’s come.  Or gone.

On Sunday, Hendry fired hitting coach Gerald Perry.  When a club is hitting .246 collectively and is 14th out of 16 National League teams in run production, something - or in this case - someone has to go.

Exit Perry.  Enter new hitting coach Von Joshua.

“Obviously, we’ve been struggling for a long time,” Hendry said of the move. “I’m not one to dump all the blame on coaches. I’ve never made a coaching change to my knowledge in the middle of the year. I think sometimes you need a different voice.”

So that’s it.  All Chicago Cub hitters need is a different voice telling them the same things.

If that’s all it takes, I throw my vote to WGN baseball broadcaster Len (Judas to the Truth) Kasper as the new hitting coach.  At least Kasper offers a novel approach to the Cubs hitting woes - albeit wreaking of desperation.

During the eighth inning of Sunday’s game between the Cubs and Minnesota, Kasper joked (at least I hope so) that maybe Alfonso Soriano could loft a fly ball that somehow would miraculously land on the back of one of the birds circling Wrigley Field.  The bird would then fly to the bleachers where it would dispose of the ball in the crowd.

At least that’s what I hope Kasper was referring to when putting bird and dropping in the same sentence.  Then again, he could have put Perry’s firing as plainly and bluntly as Soriano.

“When the team’s doing wrong, somebody has to pay,” Soriano said. “Last year, nobody said anything, we had the best year offensively, and [Perry] is the best hitting coach. This year, we have a little problem, and now he’s the worst. That’s the game.”