Nomar Garciaparra will hold a news conference upon his arrival at camp Monday morning, sitting at a podium on his first day as Sammy Sosa used to do every spring.
Most other players address the media from inside the clubhouse, but few draw the kind of attention Garciaparra and Sosa do.
The Cubs aren’t asking Garciaparra to replace Sosa as the face of the organization, but they wouldn’t mind if it happened. They want him to sign a long-term deal after the season, but general manager Jim Hendry will not change his longstanding philosophy of not negotiating during the season. Giving Garciaparra a $250,000 raise last week was a goodwill gesture that Hendry hopes will pay off in November.
Both the baseball operations and marketing divisions of the Cubs hope Garciaparra can build on his good relationship with the Chicago media after watching Sosa gradually withdraw from reporters after the corked-bat episode in 2003. It’s an odd position for Garciaparra, who feuded with the Boston media before being traded to Chicago last summer.
Perception is everything. The Boston Globe on Sunday referred to “the silence of misery that so often occupied Garciaparra’s corner of the clubhouse.”
In Chicago, where silence is golden, Garciaparra just was considered a quiet guy. Sosa hopes for a similar image makeover in Baltimore.
Fighting chance
Jason Dubois was slated to platoon with Todd Hollandsworth in left field before the Sosa trade to Baltimore brought Jerry Hairston Jr. to the Cubs. Now he’s not assured of making the team.
“What else does the kid have to do in the minor leagues?” Hendry said. “He hit 30-plus homers every year, was MVP in the Arizona Fall League, had a quality year in Mexico. You saw glimpses of him on the last weekend of the year, leaving the ballpark. I mean, somebody’s got to be Rookie of the Year.
“Nobody ever heard of [San Diego shortstop] Khalil Greene two years ago, or Jason Bay in Pittsburgh. That’s the kind of guy you’ve got [in Dubois]. He was very similar in the minor leagues to what Jason Bay was. It’s very unfair to him to just dismiss him as `Thanks for putting in five good years in the minor leagues and doing everything well on the way up the ladder,’ and every story is `Who’s going to play left field instead of that guy?'”
Even so, Dubois, 25, isn’t promised anything but a chance to make the final cut.
“He’s fighting for a spot,” manager Dusty Baker said. “He’s definitely in the plans, but it’s hard to be that young and have [the team] made unless there’s a big void. . . . Dubois is an impressive young man. He has work to do in certain areas, but he has a pretty good shot.”
Extra innings
Wristbands for the purchase of 2005 individual tickets will be available at Wrigley Field from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday. More than 12,000 wristbands were dispersed last year, and the Cubs expect to surpass that number.
