Sammy slams a record

All sorts of stuff is going on in Chicago sports, so here are five of my random thoughts…

1---First off, I’d like to give my props to Sammy Sosa for hitting home run number 600. Sammy had a bad exit from the Cubs, from the cork scandal in 2003 to walking out of Wrigley Field before the final game in 2004, then lying about it when there was a tape that documented everything that happened. But as a Cubs fan, I have to say that he when Sammy was on, as he was from 1998 through 2002, it was some of the most exciting baseball I’ve ever seen. Even though I knew that he was likely to strikeout on a slider in the dirt, every time Sammy stepped to the plate, there was a feeling that something special was about to happen. I remember how excited I was during the ’98 home run chase, the year Sosa won his only MVP award. But his best season may have been three years later, in 2001. That year Slammin Sammy hit .328 with 64 home runs, 160 RBI, 34 doubles, and even walked over 100 times (116 to be exact). He finished second in the MVP ballot to Barry Bonds, who happened to break the all-time home run record that year.

600 home runs is an impressive amount, obviously. Legends Hank Aaron, Bonds, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays are the only ones ahead of him on the all time list, so there has to be some respect given. But there is something very strange about Sosa. Maybe it’s that he sprung from a 36 home run a year guy to a 60-plus home run a year guy, back to a 40 home run a year guy so quickly. Maybe it was the cork that he had in his bat. But it was probably the performance he pulled on Capitol Hill, when being asked by Senators about steroids, when Sosa pretended he didn’t know how to speak English. I give Sammy his props for hitting 600 homers, but I’m not sure he is the great player like Aaron, Ruth and Mays are. (Bonds is a whole different issue)

2---Fresh off a heart-wrenching game versus the Rangers that should have been a blowout loss or a big win, but instead was a disaster, the Cubs face their cross-town rivals this weekend on the South Side. Good thing for the Cubs that the White Sox are even worse than then they are. Ozzie’s team has lost 19 of their last 23 games, including two of three this week against the Marlins. That led the manager to say his team had “sucked” recently, which may or may not have been a good thing. As a Cubs fan, I hope the North Siders sweep. As a realist, I’ll say they take two of three, with Big Z throwing another amazing game Friday afternoon.

3---Turning to football, there was some strange news coming out of Bears mini-camp on Wednesday. It was expected that linebacker Lance Briggs wasn’t at the practice, since he feels that 7.5 million dollars a year obviously isn’t enough money for the second best player at a position. But what was not expected was that the actual top player at the spot, Brian Urlacher, would show up wearing Briggs’ number 55 jersey to practice. Lovie Smith brushed it off as just fun, seeing that Devin Hester was wearing number four and Kyle Orton had on ten. But I am concerned. The Bears window for being a Super Bowl team is closing quickly, with only one or two more seasons left where the entire defense is still in their prime. The Briggs issue has a chance to be a big chemistry problem, especially if Urlacher takes his linebacker mates side. I hope that GM Jerry Angelo and Coach Smith explain to everybody that they are not forcing Lance to hold out, and that this should not be the focus of the team. Making sure the D is 100% for opening day against San Diego and that Rex Grossman doesn’t single-handedly ruin the season is much more important than weather or not Briggs shows up.

4---One week away from the NBA Draft, and other than the top two picks (Greg Oden and Kevin Durant), nothing has been figured out. It appears that the group of Corey Brewer, Al Horford, Mike Conley Jr., Jeff Green, Brandon Wright, and Joakim Noah will go between three and eight, but nobody seems to know which team will grab which player. If it is true that those eight guys are gone when the Bulls pick at nine, I have come up with five players who would I like to see the squad pick up:

*Note---Listed in alphabetical order, not the ranking of whom I would like to see selected

5-Al Thornton, Florida State
4-Jason Smith, Colorado State
3-Julian Wright, Kansas
2-Spencer Hawes, Washington
1-Yi Jianlian, China

I saw a lot of Thronton, Hawes and Wright in college, and I know they are all the real deal. Thornton isn’t really a need for the Bulls, considering he’s a 6-8 guy who scores from all around the floor, kind of like Loul Deng. But he is an elite scorer who could contribute immediately. Hawes is a nice post scorer, and at 6-11, he can play inside. He is very young and wouldn’t be expected to come right in and put up fifteen points and eight rebounds a game. Wright is a (I hate making this comparison, but it had to be done) Scottie Pippen type player, a small forward who is great at setting up his teammates for easy baskets. Like Thornton, he doesn’t fill a Bulls need but would be a great addition to any team, especially since he’s a Chicago native.

From what I’ve read about Smith, he’s a big guy who can shoot it from the outside. I’m worried that I never had heard of him until the first mock draft came out, because I usually see most of the top college players, regardless of what school they attend. I doubt the Bulls will select him, but he’s a possibility if John Paxon decides to trade down in the first round.

Yi is the opposite of what the Bulls usually go for, yet he’s the guy I think that the team wants the most. The last few years, the team has used lottery picks on guys who played in the Final Four, or if not, players in historically good college programs. Yi has been playing in China for his entire life, and it is not even clear how old he is. (Some sites say he’s 19, other think its more like 23. That’s a pretty big difference.) He can shoot from the outside well (against other Chinese players), has a high hoops IQ and stands seven feet, 246 pounds. He may not be an All-Star right away, but I think he could become a pretty good player rather quickly.

5---Another theory regarding the draft is that the pick will go to the Lakers or T-Wolves, because the Bulls are rumored to acquire either Kobe Bryant or Kevin Garnett. I wouldn’t mind having either guy, though KG would be better in my opinion. Right now though, it seems more likely that Bryant will be traded. Again, I have no problem with him coming to Chicago, but that could change depending on who the Bulls give up to get him. If the package includes Loul Deng, its not a smart trade. If the Bulls have to trade Ben Gordon, Tyrus Thomas, PJ Brown or Andreas Noccioni, and the #9 pick, then its good in my book. But if Kirk Hinrich is subbed in for Gordon, it is not worth doing. Remember, if the Bulls deal lets say Deng, Gordon, Brown and the nine pick for Kobe, there lineup is Hinrich, Bryant, Noccioni, Thomas and Ben Wallace. That’s not an improvement to what they trotted out this year. To make a Finals run next year, the team needs to add another scorer. But taking out both Gordon and Deng to add the scorer doesn’t fix the problem at all.