The Cubs played their first real fake game of the year today. Man, it is nice to have baseball back! Granted, none of it is on TV yet, but I am so glad to be able to read about the games on the internet, poring over the sites on the web for any piece of Cubs news. I thought it was cool that in the intrasquad game yesterday, Corey Patterson played against his younger brother Eric, and Eric tripled past his brother...how cool would that be?

It is funny to read all of the stories from camp this year, and you can just tell how happy all of the beat writers are to not have to deal with Sammy Sosa. It is funny how one person can affect way more than just the team. Don't forget how many people had to deal with Sosa on a day to day basis.

Putting that into a work context is an interesting analogy. Let's say someone at your job is the best salesman that has ever worked for your company, and they sell like CRAZY, but everybody at the office hates them. Eventually, the company has to weigh the benefits of his sales with the overall morale and productivity of the rest of the office. Usually, in the end, the rest of the company wins out. The company is willing to sacrifice a really productive member of the team and all of the sales that he generates just to make the rest of the office happy and productive. This is exactly what happened to the Cubs with Sosa. They got rid of the productive sales guy who was percieved as a cancer (and paid most of his salary, too).

I loved Sammy, and there will always be a special place in my heart for him...but not if he is taking away from my team....  ¶ 4:34 PM