Reality Check

It really bugs me when people say Sosa is a bum, he is choking down the stretch, he isnt worth $16 million.

They point to his September average of .205 as proof of this point. But they fail to realize that when Sosa entered the Montreal series in Puerto Rico his average was staying around .292. Then he was hit in the head and since then his batting average has tumbled to .279.

In May into early June when he was also hit in the head, had an injury and was suspended his average was .238 for that month. He bounced back and hit .319, .305 and .286 in those months.

What am i trying to say? It seems only when Sosa is hit in the head by a 90+ MPH fastball are opposing teams able to shutdown and contain Sammy Sosa for a short period of time.

When i look at a player i dont forget what they have done for the team over the course of the season. Some Cubs fans tend to have very short memory span as they are more concerned with, "What have you done for me lately."

I seem to remember many games where Sosa provided all or most of our runs for victories. Games where if we didnt win we wouldnt even be thinking playoffs. I dont forget this. Some Cubs fans do. And i dont really consider them Cubs fans if they are that dumb to blow that off. They are more like bandwagon fans.

These are also the same people who just plain love Alex Gonzalez. Ya know because he has 8 walk off homeruns or some BS. Nevermind the fact he has a .230 BA, and hitting .189 since the break. He is our "Best" so called clutch hitter according to them. Yeah well a broken watch gets the time correct twice a day. It Doesnt mean its working, or in A-gonz case, it doesnt mean he is getting the job done.

As for the other gripe Sosa isnt worth $16million. Phoey. Moises Alou had a 30 RBI lead on him in June and Sosa blew past him. Currently Sosa ranks 10th in HR, 19th in runs, 15th in RBI. And thats from missing nearly a month. His numbers may not be at the top at the end of the year but when Sosa has played he has been a monster.

And besides isnt that why we got Lofton, AmRam, Simon? Even the best hitters cant do it everyday. When you stack your lineup with good hitters you have a much better chance of having atleast 1 or 2 of your hitters hot everyday. Right now AmRam is stepping in filling the void. Someone needs to. We all saw what happened most of the year when Sosa wasnt involved in scoring the run or driving in the run. We usually got shutout. Or only scored 1 run. Its about damn time some other people on this team started carrying some of the offensive load.

Cubs in 1st: Ah what a joy it was during my break at work to see the Cubs win and Astros lose to move us 1 game ahead of Houston. I still believe we need to win out to win the division. Houston may only get 1 out of 3 from San Fran but i fully expect them to sweep Milwaukee to finish out the season.

So that means if we drop 1 game to either Cincy or the Pirates we could head to a 1 game playoff. Something i would like to avoid. Though here is hoping that Milwaukee jumps up and bites Houston and we can escape from Cincy and the Pirates without too much damage.