Just a few weeks after Sports Illustrated devoted several pages to Sammy Sosa’s supposedly smooth transition from Wrigleyville pariah to Camden Park fan fave, the Baltimore Sun’s Kevin Van Valkenburg says the locals have grown impatient.
Sosa has been hearing plenty of jeers lately, especially during a recent stretch (since broken) when he failed to drive in a run for 12 consecutive games. It was the longest RBI drought for Sosa in 13 years; the booing seemed to grow louder with each weak ground ball he hit with men on base.
With half the season now gone, the honeymoon is clearly over, and plenty of Orioles fans now look at Sosa and are already daydreaming of divorce. Not because he’s been disruptive or selfish – two charges levied against him often near the end of his career with the Cubs – but because he’s simply not the player he used to be.
He strikes out a lot, rarely drives the ball with power when he does make contact, and, until recently, he seemed to have a knack for rally-killing.
Sosa has been hearing plenty of jeers lately, especially during a recent stretch (since broken) when he failed to drive in a run for 12 consecutive games. It was the longest RBI drought for Sosa in 13 years; the booing seemed to grow louder with each weak ground ball he hit with men on base.
With half the season now gone, the honeymoon is clearly over, and plenty of Orioles fans now look at Sosa and are already daydreaming of divorce. Not because he’s been disruptive or selfish – two charges levied against him often near the end of his career with the Cubs – but because he’s simply not the player he used to be.
He strikes out a lot, rarely drives the ball with power when he does make contact, and, until recently, he seemed to have a knack for rally-killing.
For die-hard fans like Spears. Sosa’s disappointing first half is only more fuel for the frustration and anger they feel toward the Orioles organization as a whole.
“We all know what Sosa was about,” Spears said. “He was a last-ditch effort to save face for the front office in the off-season. They couldn’t sign anybody of real market value, and so they got Sosa because the Cubs basically gave him away. Then [Orioles owner] Peter Angelos can say, ‘See, we did something. We brought Sammy Sosa here.’ And then they get to use him for all the advertising and marketing stuff. …