Published Feb 21, 2006
Like most Cubs fans, I loved Sammy Sosa. He emerged as one of baseball's most lovable figures in 1998, clubbing 66 homers, winning the NL MVP and leading the Cubs in an improbable run to the Wild Card.
His sheepish smile, his dugout-to-bleacher sprints out to right field, the way he said, "Baseball's been very, very good to me" - Sammy was just Sammy - and he was everything a professional athlete should be.
But with a little cork and the crack of the bat in June of 2003, the cracks in Sosa's foundation began to show. And before long, Sammy was crumbling.