There is certainly a tiebreaker when it comes to including or eliminating Sammy Sosa from consideration for the all-time greatest Cub contest, and that is the “baseball player factor.” Sosa was a big home run hitter but not a true ballplayer.
Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Fergie Jenkins and Ryne Sandberg were real ballplayers, unselfish, team-oriented, fundamentally sound athletes who did not take performance-enhancing drugs, did not cork their bats and made Cubs fans proud to call them our own. There are other Cubs who would qualify ahead of Sosa, including Stan Hack, Phil Cavarretta , Hack Wilson, Gabby Hartnett, Hank Sauer, Frank Chance, Mordecai Brown and Mark Grace, just to name a few.
Sandberg said it best when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame by asking when did it become all right to hit home runs but forget how to play the rest of the game. I don’t think Sosa necessarily forgot how the play the rest of the game, I think he simply did not care. Give me the real ballplayers.
