Idiots Write About Sports

The news that Sammy Sosa’s Cub career is just about over — he’s apparently headed to Baltimore for Jerry Hairston Jr. and a plateful of magic beans — has got me thinking: has an athlete ever gone from beloved civic hero to fan kryptonite as fast as Sosa?

I was last in the Windy City back in 1998, at which time Sosa probably ranked second in civic affection behind Michael Jordan (bringer of championships, slayer of Knicks). And I think that after Jordan’s subsequent retirement and ill-advised comeback with the ballclub formerly known as the Bullets, Sosa probably vaulted ahead of him in the public’s estimation.

Probably the first real blow to the public’s perception of Sosa was L’affaire du Corked Bat — that was June 2003. And his reputation probably bottomed out shortly after he went AWOL on the Cubs in the last game of the 2004 season. So that’s an 18-month period where Sosa went from Athlete Who Could Do No Wrong to Athlete So Despised We Can Trade Him for Jerry Hairston’s Kid and Not Hear a Peep of Protest.

That has to be some sort of record.

Who else can claim to have fallen that far, that fast? Jason Giambi? Well, he was never really beloved in New York to begin with, and his public perception took a hit in Oakland precisely because he skipped town. Mike Piazza? He didn’t do himself any favors when he responded to Roger Clemens bat toss with an incredulous pout when anything short of an eye-bulging rage would have raised eyebrows. O.J. Simpson? I’m not sure he ever reached “beloved athlete” status, certainly not outside of Buffalo in the mid-70s, but you could argue that what did — OK, libel lawyers, what he stood accused of doing — was mildly more serious than playing his salsa CDs too loud in the clubhouse.

So I put it to the general public: has any athlete ever topped Sosa’s descent from hero to villain? While you consider your response, please read Gene Wojciechowski’s excellent look at Sosa’s cratering popularity over at ESPN.com.

Bit mistaken, Philip: We're not entirely 100% happy with the Sammy trade. Ask around and, if we go into camp like this, Cubs fans will think they've been hosed. We're not complaining yet because we plan to immediately turn around and deal those prospects, ideally for Aubrey Huff. If Sosa lands us Hairston and Huff, we'll take it.

Hm. We had a lot of guys plummet pretty fast around here, but there was some contention to start with, i.e. Pedro wasn't universally loved before he left, but I still think his popularity dropped pretty damn fast once he got onto the Mets. Same deal with Mientkiewicz- guy who caught the ball that made the Red Sox WORLD CHAMPIONS, to guy who wouldn't let go of the ball and was reduced to squabbling with management.

Curt Schilling, I'm sad to say, seems to be trying his level best to do the same.

mtvcdm: Yes, perhaps I exaggerated the sangfroid with which Sosa's departure is being received. But imagine if this were 1999, or even 2001, and the Cubs were trading Sosa away for a bag of balls. The streets in front of the Tribune Building would be jammed with North Siders screaming for blood.

Boston Fan: I would contend that a player leaving a team and a town really doesn't count -- of course, generally speaking, fans are going to turn on someone who signs a more lucrative contract to play elsewhere. The thing about Sosa is, everyone turned on him _before_ he left town. In fact, that's largely the reason the Cubs have to make such a ridiculous trade in the first place.

Having thought about this for 24 hours, the only one I can come up with that's even in the same league as Sammy Sosa is Ken Griffey Jr., who made the journey from beloved superstar returning to lead his hometwon nine to triumph to contractual millstone around the Reds' neck in about the time it took for his hamstring to snap.

Hm. True. But the Pedro worm started to turn before he actually left. It just got markedly worse once he did.

I forgot about Griffey, that's a good one. Then again, Griffey and forgetting seem to go hand-in-hand these days, so that's about right :)

Oh, goodness. The Kevin Malone-era Dodgers are chock-full of name players who forgot how to produce, or made themselves into public jackasses. Jay Jaffe's observation that he was right notwithstanding, Gary Sheffield became an enormous trainwreck almost the minute he came to town. Kevin Brown took a little longer, but his bathroom-busting antics and extended tours on the DL turned fans rapidly against him, too.

Sammy is a special case; clearly a first-ballot HoF'er, he was dumb enough to let expectations get to him. None of the Cubs' options -- not one -- can be reasonably expected, by any of the sabermetric projections I've seen, to produce anywhere near what Sammy will. Jeromy Burnitz? Puh-leeze. Jerry Hairston, Jr.? Don't make me laugh. If I'm Hendry, I make Sosa issue an apology to the public for his behavior, I tell Baker to bite down -- hard -- on one of his trademark toothpicks, and everybody gets together and sings Kumbaya for one last season.

Posted by scareduck at February 2, 2005 04:49 AM

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