Bryan W. Alaspa 1Sammy Sosa’s big non-surprise
June 17th 2009 13:24
There is a scene in the classic movie “Casablanca” that always comes to my mind when I see how the media acts in Chicago. The chief of police in the city is at Rick’s Bar when the evil Nazis come and talk to him. They tell him that there is illegal gambling going on in the bar. The chief’s eyes widen and he says, “I am shocked – SHOCKED – to hear that there is gambling in this establishment.” At that exact moment a man walks up to him with a huge stack of money and says, “Your winnings sir.” The chief thanks him and pockets the money.
Was there really anyone who was shocked to hear that Sammy Sosa, formerly of both the glorious South Side Chicago White Sox and the horrific North Side Chicago Cubs, was ‘roided up? I mean, seriously, people, were any of you naïve enough to actually believe he wasn’t juiced to the gills back then? I ask the same thing of you St. Louis Cardinals fans still clinging to the idea that McGwire wasn’t also in the same boat.
I mean, take a look at them. I was moving back to Chicago after living for three years in St. Louis in 1998. I went from one city in the midst of some kind of collective frenzy as McGwire began pursuing the home run record, to another city that was in a collective frenzy. What is amazing to me is that people back then were so caught up in the frenzy, they didn’t realize that the men in that competition hard arms that looked like Popeye. Those are not normal arms, people!
Sammy Sosa was a skinny and weird-looking kid when he played for the White Sox. He was also wildly inconsistent. He would make a great play and then have long periods of time when he did nothing at the plate or in the field. Somehow between his time with the Sox and 1998 he became his monstrously big guy with freakishly big Popeye arms who could hit balls over the wall seemingly at will.
That doesn’t just happen by working out more. Well, it could, but you’d have to work out to such an extent that you certainly would have time for anything else. You just know that something was going on there that wasn’t quite above-board.
The media in this town, though, has to act shocked. I am dying to hear if there are actual doe-eyed Cubs fans who were still clinging to the idea that Sammy wasn’t so juiced I wouldn’t have been surprised if extra limbs had suddenly sprouted from his eye sockets. These are probably the same people who actually think Wrigley Field is not a crumbling wreck on par with the Coliseum in Rome. As if ivy makes up for no parking, uncomfortably cramped seats, lousy food, drunken fans, people on their cell phones the entire time, no one watching the actual game, and peeing in troughs if you are a man.
Then again, Cubs fans continue to believe that their team is going to win the World Series despite all evidence against it. So, you have to admire people so delusional, right?
Was there really anyone who was shocked to hear that Sammy Sosa, formerly of both the glorious South Side Chicago White Sox and the horrific North Side Chicago Cubs, was ‘roided up? I mean, seriously, people, were any of you naïve enough to actually believe he wasn’t juiced to the gills back then? I ask the same thing of you St. Louis Cardinals fans still clinging to the idea that McGwire wasn’t also in the same boat.
I mean, take a look at them. I was moving back to Chicago after living for three years in St. Louis in 1998. I went from one city in the midst of some kind of collective frenzy as McGwire began pursuing the home run record, to another city that was in a collective frenzy. What is amazing to me is that people back then were so caught up in the frenzy, they didn’t realize that the men in that competition hard arms that looked like Popeye. Those are not normal arms, people!
Sammy Sosa was a skinny and weird-looking kid when he played for the White Sox. He was also wildly inconsistent. He would make a great play and then have long periods of time when he did nothing at the plate or in the field. Somehow between his time with the Sox and 1998 he became his monstrously big guy with freakishly big Popeye arms who could hit balls over the wall seemingly at will.
That doesn’t just happen by working out more. Well, it could, but you’d have to work out to such an extent that you certainly would have time for anything else. You just know that something was going on there that wasn’t quite above-board.
The media in this town, though, has to act shocked. I am dying to hear if there are actual doe-eyed Cubs fans who were still clinging to the idea that Sammy wasn’t so juiced I wouldn’t have been surprised if extra limbs had suddenly sprouted from his eye sockets. These are probably the same people who actually think Wrigley Field is not a crumbling wreck on par with the Coliseum in Rome. As if ivy makes up for no parking, uncomfortably cramped seats, lousy food, drunken fans, people on their cell phones the entire time, no one watching the actual game, and peeing in troughs if you are a man.
Then again, Cubs fans continue to believe that their team is going to win the World Series despite all evidence against it. So, you have to admire people so delusional, right?
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