Wed, June 7 Sammy Sosa has done some marvelous things in the last few years, with his wonderful smile and effusive personality lighting up ballparks all across America. He has been great for the game, respectful and caring. That's why his outburst, right out of right field, is very confusing. OK, so Don Baylor said the team might have to trade Sosa to get better. That is correct. The Cubs are not a good team, and likely won't be the rest of this year. They need to get better. Baylor didn't say he wants to trade Sosa. He didn't say Sammy is the reason the team is losing. Sosa could bring three useful players. He's one of the few guys on the team with real value, and one of the few free agent-eligible players (after 2001). It's the responsibility of the Cubs to improve themselves whatever way possible. Trading Sosa likely would be a last resort. He wants to stay there. They want him there, but they just can't do whatever he wants Sosa says Don Baylor has no class. That's simply not true. Baylor challenged Sosa in spring training. That's exactly what he should have done -- Sosa had become less interested and less effective in right field and on the bases. Baylor needed him to be more of a complete player. And he has been this year. But Sosa calling himself a superstar, and demanding more respect, is a bit pretentious. That's the way that many players think of themselves. We didn't expect it from Sammy.

"From the first day he got here, he has been saying some negative things about me for no reason," Sosa said in Wednesday's editions of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. "He hasn't really treated me the way I'm supposed to be treated. And that's what I'm saying. He has got no class."