Bernstein: Sammy Sosa Story Illustrates How Far Cubs Have Come
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) Sammy Sosa appears to be the same needy child he always was, still pining for adulation and acceptance from adoring fans, even as far removed as he is from baseball glory. To hear his passive-aggressive pleas for a return to the good graces of the Cubs is a sour reintroduction to a cynical era of the team's existence in which a cult of phony personality mattered as much as baseball.
While the Cubs have evolved into something bigger, better and smarter, Sosa hasn't.
In an interview with former Cubs public relations worker and baseball operations assistant Chuck Wasserstrom, Sosa bragged about his various current business interests, compared his self-made struggles to those of Jesus Christ, noted that hit hit more home runs than Ernie Banks and also dropped this whopper: "When nobody knew who Chicago was, I put Chicago on the map."
He really thinks this. If you are new to the Sosa experience, that's about all you need to get to know him.
These were only the highlights, above and beyond his standard-issue blanket denials of ever, ever using performance-enhancing drugs of any kind and all but daring the Cubs to come make peace with him.
To their credit as people with far more important things to do at the moment, the Cubs made it even clearer in the wake of this that they're done with Sosa. The Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday afternoon that multiple team sources believed Sosa's comments "were so bizarre it convinced the organization to close the door on the possibility of ending his 13-year exile" and that "(Chairman Tom) Ricketts and other high-ranking officials apparently weren't happy with the interview and have decided to stop talking about him."
It doesn't take much speculation to connect the dots as to who those other officials may be, the guys who transformed the front office from a laughingstock to a fearsome powerhouse. And that's the other part of this story that recalled darker times, the strange performance of the blogger who scored the interview.
Wasserstrom appeared excited to share his scoop with the world, sending out more than 40 messages related to the story from his personal Twitter feed, tagging every local and national media member he could in an effort to publicize it. As is standard procedure on such days, our executive producer of the Bernstein and Goff Show on 670 The Score booked him for an interview Tuesday, ostensibly to shed more light on the conversation as well as add personal insight and opinion. The bio on Wasserstrom's website says specifically, "I tell my behind-the-scenes stories of 25 years in a big-league front office."
Except when actually asked about any of it, apparently. In a turn as strange as that of Sosa, Wasserstom appeared flummoxed when presented with a chance to tell the story of the interview, unwilling to provide insight on what he thought Sosa's motivations now were and incapable of lending any insider's perspective from someone who was working for the team during the tumultuous time of Sosa's departure. He seemed nervous and defensive, as if he was either still employed by the Cubs, working for Sosa himself or somehow both.
And that, as much as the ghost of Sosa returning, served to remind us how far the Cubs have come from what they once were and what their officials so often displayed -- a signature combination of arrogance, incompetence and disingenuousness that needed to be swept away.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Bernstein and Goff Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.
