For a good example of a columnist who just doesn’t get it, read this entry by the Tribune’s Rick Morrissey. He writes:

“The problem wasn’t Sammy,” Baker said of the Cubs’ 67-95 record last season. “The problem was losing.”

Yes but, fair or not to Sammy, the two are entwined. When the Cubs are winning, Sosa’s loud clubhouse music doesn’t matter. When they’re losing, as they were last season, the music grates on teammates.

Aaargh! Morrissey also complains about Sosa’s defense, his running game, his strikeouts, and his failure to advance runners. Which is all very interesting, but totally off the mark. Sosa, while not the perfect player, is not a liability on this team. He is their best position player by far and one of the best in Cubs’ history. Sammy Sosa, as Baker so rightly put it, is not the problem. The roblems are too many to list here, but they have nothing to do with the guy who feel one home run short of hitting 50 or more five seasons in a row.

Moises Alou didn’t hit a lick for the first two and a half months of the season, Corey Patterson struck out 142 times, the bullpen blew so many saves I lost count. But who does Morrissey choose to write about? Sosa. Why? Because people love to bitch about Sosa. I’m not crazy about the guy, but he’s the best we got and the best we’re going to have for a long, long time to come.

It’s not like basketball where a player’s selfishness can cost the team points. Sosa’s job is to do well for himself by hitting the ball hard. That just oh so happens to help out the team too. When you can slug the ball like Sosa, there is no conflict between selfishness and “team play.” I just think these sportswriters hate salsa music. If he started blasting the Rolling Stones I bet they’d love the guy.

The good news is that Baker knows how to handle a self-involved superstar like Sosa. He did it for years with Barry Bonds in San Francisco. As I understand it, Baker’s atittude basically was, “Hey, this guy’s the best player the rest of you will probably ever play with it. So deal with it.” Sounds about right to me.

Not. Please, I hope not. I hope the Cubs are just being nice to meet with first baseman free-agent Jim Thome and his agent for lunch.

Aside from Mark Prior, first baseman Hee Sop Choi is about as sure a thing as the Cubs have had come out of their farm system in a long time. He hit great in triple-A last season and is tearing it up in the fall league right now. And it would be ashame to throw that away on a guy who, no matter what, will be much more expensive and one way or the other be gone much sooner.

Yes, Thome is probably the second best first baseman in baseball right now (after Jason Giambi), but the Cubs need to resist their temptation to go after the quick, big score. Wood, Prior, Clement; Hill, Patterson, Choi. Those are the guys the Cubs should be building around. This is the only time you’ll hear me say I wish there was a DH in the National League. Then you could have both Choi’s and Thome’s left-handed bats in the lineup. Ah, well.

Update: Hendry is really downplaying his meeting with Thome, which means that he probably told him in no uncertain terms that they weren’t going to budge Choi. So either Thome learns to play third base or it’s a no-go.

I’m not sure, but whatever it is, it inspired three Bartlett, Ill., teen-agers to steal 57 of them over the last six months and stashed them in a garage. It’s possibly the most bizarre prank I’ve heard of.

“We were just flabbergasted that anyone would take them,” said one victim of the teen gnome-goodniks. Which is why it’s the perfect crime, except that you have to put the damn things someplace. My question is whose garage it was and how did the owner overlook 57 gnomes? Did the parents just think, “Aw, Bobby’s collecting gnomes. That’s nice,” and not give it a second thought?