NEWSLETTER
I feel like it’s pretty rare that there’s a wild story from the Chicago Cubs’ semi-recent past of which I have zero knowledge or recollection, so when it happens, it’s a lot of fun. For me, at least.
And I think maybe for you, too. So, with appreciation to CHGO’s Kevin Kaduk for unearthing it, and the Chicago Tribune for originally reporting it 30 years ago today, here’s a wild story about Sammy Sosa that I’d never heard before:
“Guerrero jumped over a table and he and Worrell tumbled into a locker.” Really picture that happening in the St. Louis Cardinals’ clubhouse. That’s some Carlos Zambrano-Michael Barrett-level intrasquad “quarreling.” Todd Worrell (6’5″, 222 lbs) and Pedro Guerrero (6’0″, 195 lbs) were both big boys in their playing days, so that was probably quite the rumble.
And there was Sammy Sosa, then just 23 and in his first year with the Cubs, right in the middle of the thing for committing the GRIEVOUS SIN of heading to the Cardinals’ clubhouse upon invitation. Maybe it was obvious and known to everyone in those days that you don’t go into the other teams’ clubhouse – is that still a thing today? even among friends? – but it seems then-manager Jim Lefebvre REALLY wanted Sosa to know it was not cool. More than that, he wanted Sosa to know the reason you don’t go is because, “They are the enemy.”
Maybe so, but if Sosa’s presence sparked a fight among Cardinals players, didn’t he do a good job disrupting “the enemy”? A little 12-dimension chess? Getting the Cardinals totally off-kilter before the series finale? Eh? Eh? Youngster playing like a savvy vet?!
… well, if so, it didn’t work. The Cardinals won that game.
