Chicago Cubs Baseball

Having pointed out the errors of Alfonso Soriano’s ways, now I’ve seen my own.

For that, I can only say, “So sorry, Sori.”

All the time I was dogging him, I should have been digging him. Those jeers? They should have been cheers.

While I was busy blasting him, Soriano was planning some blasts of his own. Seven to be exact. And that’s just been in the last week.

Soriano has 10 homers on the season and he raised his RBI total to 26 with a sacrifice fly in the Chicago Cubs 4-3 win over Pittsburgh today. He’s also amped his batting average over 100 points in the last week, going 20 for 37, including Saturday’s 5 for 5 effort .

“Some people think he’s a dumb hitter but he’s not,” Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano said, obviously referring to my assessment of Soriano. “He’s a smart hitter and at the beginning, people booing him were doing no good. Everybody in baseball can go through slumps, bad times. Superstars do what Sori’s doing right now.”

Coming from a guy who snaps bats across his knee after striking out only confirms how little I’ve learned in playing and watching baseball from the days of my wee youth. All this time I thought Soriano was just another free-swinging hitter.

It’s been said, statistics don’t lie. Evidently, they do. Because I thought Soriano’s 4:1 lifetime strikeout to walk ratio and .326 OBP qualified him for a spot in the middle of the lineup rather than leading off.

But today I come to praise Soriano, not to bury him. For Soriano’s been Chicago Cub baseball’s hero. He’s been the hottest swatter in major league baseball and likely will earn some type of honor.

For now Sori’s proved me wrong. I only hope I’ll be saying that in October. Fa shizzle.