This card arrived in the mail yesterday, part of a stack of Orioles traded to me by reader Adam. It's a great card, despite the massive failure that was Sammy Sosa's single injury-marred, malcontented season in Baltimore. I find Slammin' Sammy to be such a caricature of a human being that his insincere enthusiasm in that photo made me laugh the moment I saw it. In an unusual choice, the picture chosen was taken from the press conference at the B & O Warehouse that introduced the former Cubs slugger as the newest member of the O's: February 2, 2005. Although I retained enough optimism at the time to pencil Sosa in for 30-plus home runs, deep down I knew it was an eleventh-hour move of desperation by a front office that had failed to acquire an impact player in the offseason. Still, it's a snazzy-looking card, and all the more entertaining because the design makes Sosa appear artificial, as though he were cast in wax, or maybe stuffed with a cork center.This card is a colorful, glossy reminder that I need to be a better trading partner. While my real-world distractions haven't kept me from regular blog updates, I've fallen way behind on my end of a handful of trades. When I finish posting this entry, I firmly resolve to make a beeline for my bedroom closet and to start rooting through boxes. Those who have been generous enough to send me some of the great cards that I've featured in recent weeks are also unfailingly patient, and they deserve to be rewarded. Another reason to get these trades finished once and for all is that I have some contest ideas in the works...I want to start with a clean slate.
Sammy says, "Talk is cheap! Hop to it!"
At least that's what he'd say if he hadn't "forgotten" how to speak English.
Sammy Sosa.......... I'd prefer to forget that he spent a year disgracing the Oriole uniform. A fraud and a cheat.
ReplyDeleteCool card though. ;-)
"Insincere enthusiasm" sums it up. That's exactly how I remember him.
ReplyDeleteman, as a Red Sox fan, I'm pumped my team did well..as a baseball fan, I'm sorry you're being subjected to such a disaster of a season. You keep plugging away though, which is great. I hope your team turns it around. And I hope Millar helps it happen; he's a fun guy to watch!
ReplyDeleteBob - At least we didn't give up much for him. Fontenot's a major leaguer, but he'll never be a star.
ReplyDeletePatricia - Running out to right field, pounding his chest, waving and blowing kisses to the bleachers...methinks he doth protest too much.
Mickey - Fortunately I was at work, and only observed Wednesday's meltdown through Yahoo's game cast. I have no choice but to keep at it...when this team does make it back, I want to know that I didn't give up on them.
Of course there has to be a card depicting the moment that he forgot all the english that he knew, except for one SNL line.
ReplyDelete"Baseball has been bery bery good to me."