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Cubs on verge of dealing Sosa to Orioles


Yoda

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January 29, 2005, at 12:27 AM ET

Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - The Chicago Cubs are reportedly on the verge of trading slugger Sammy Sosa to the Baltimore Orioles.

ESPN reports the Cubs will send Sosa to the Orioles for second baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. and at least two minor leaguers. The deal would have to be approved by commissioner Bud Selig and the Players' Association and would only be finalized if all players involved pass physicals.

Sosa is due to make $17 million this season and his option for 2006 is worth $18 million. One thing apparently that's been holding up Sosa from being traded is another option. If he's traded, the option for 2006 would be automatically exercised, and then there would be a $19 million option for 2007. Both the 2006 and 2007 options could be bought out for $4.5 million.

However, there have been reports that Sosa's agent, Adam Katz, would possibly void the option part of the slugger's contract so that a trade could be facilitated. The Cubs would also reportedly pay a large part of Sosa's salary to the Orioles for next season.

Selig would have to sign off on the trade since more than $1 million is being exchanged between teams.

The 36-year-old Sosa hit .253 with 35 homers and 80 RBI last season. His statistics took a big hit this past year, but Sosa played in only 126 games.

His run of nine straight seasons with at least 100 RBI came to an end. Sosa was sidelined for a month with a back injury, which he suffered after a violent sneeze.

Sosa then grabbed headlines at the end of the campaign for leaving Wrigley Field without permission during the season finale. The team fined the rightfielder $87,500, equivalent to a day's salary, and Sosa drew the ire of Cub fans. It got worse, as Sosa later criticized manager Dusty Baker, and the slugger also said he was humiliated by being dropped to sixth in the batting order.

Baker tried to clear the air during the baseball winter meetings, but he and Sosa have yet to speak to each other since the season ended.

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After last nights Rockets/Kings game, I was standing near the visiting team locker room, by the dinning room, and some guy comes walking by, don't know who the heck he was or who he was with (maybe ESPN or the Kings :wha': ) and someone told him that Sosa got traded and the guy said....."I don't give a f*ck!!" :o:lol:

I guess he isn't a Sosa fan....

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I am not a Cubs fan, an Orioles fan or a Sammy Sosa fan......but I agree with this quote from an article I read................

"There's already been a fair amount of sanctimony about Sosa, even to the absurd point of suggesting that he be kept out of the Hall of Fame. It's amazing how much more offended some people seem to be by sluggers using corked bats than by pitchers throwing scuffed or lubricated baseballs. As Rob Neyer and King Kaufman have noted, if this one corked bat - and none of Sosa's other bats were found to be corked - is reason to bar him from Cooperstown, then why are Gaylord Perry and Whitey Ford still enshrined"?

And yes I do believe Pete Rose belongs in the Hall Of Fame, for what he accomplished on the field, not from the bets he made as a Manager.

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