Results tagged “orioles”

Cubs Sweep Pirates

Cubs Rally Past Pirates

Cubs Pound Pirates

Chicagoist can't get that damn story out of our head now, but "Circle of Life" was the first thing that we thought when we heard that former Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa is about to sign a minor league deal with the Texas Rangers in hopes of returning to "the show."

Major League Baseball announced the rosters for next week's All Star Game yesterday, and 6 members of the White Sox were selected, along with one Cub -- Carlos Zambrano.

Throughout Florida and Arizona, players begin reporting to Spring Training to begin preparation for the 2006 season. However, it's looking like one play who won't be reporting to any camp is former Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa, who turned down an offer from the Washington Nationals. The only Major League offer Sosa received, the Nats deal only offered a non-guaranteed 1-year, $500,000 deal. Having already turned down offers from teams in Japan and overtures from the Dominican team to play in the upcoming World Baseball Championships, Sosa's agent said, "... I can say, with reasonable certainty, that we've seen Sammy in a baseball uniform for the last time."

Quite a few formerly high profile Chicago sports figures have sudeenly found themselves in new locations, or rumors abound that they might soon land elsewhere. Wednesday saw Frank Thomas offically sign with the Oakland A's, agreeing to a 1-year, $500,000 deal that could earn him up to $2.6 million with performance bonuses. Chicagoist hopes to see Thomas put up some productive numbers for the A's, athough it'll be wierd to see him in gold and...

Chicagoist remembers this kid at day camp who'd gladly give up his Jell-o pudding cup in return for some grapes. We think he might be working in the front office for the Baltimore Orioles these days. That's the only explaination we can come up with to explain how, for the second year in a row, the Cubs have been able to jettison a disgruntled disappointment of an outfielder to the O's.

Kenny Williams sure has been busy since the White Sox won the World Series. Had he simply brought back most of last year's roster, the Sox would have been a favorite to repeat. However, the taste of victory seems to have fueled an organizational urge to do everything possible ensure another trophy. Are the White Sox positioning themselves to do what the Bulls did in the 90's?

The biggest off-season question on all White Sox fans' minds was whether Paul Konerko would return or not. With his MVP performance through the playoffs, Konerko expected to receive a number of huge contract offers. While there were a couple offers from other teams, Paulie chose to stay with the White Sox, signing a 5-year, $60 million deal. Initially wanting to sign Konerko to a 4 year deal, Sox GM Kenny Williams matched the contract length other teams offered. Konerko said right after the World Series that all things being equal, he'd choose the Sox over another team -- which is exactly what he did.

With yesterday's 6-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, the White Sox saw their streak of games in which they held a lead to start a season end at 37 games. Chicagoist wasn't even aware such stats were kept, but evidently they are and the Sox's streak broke the Major League record that previously had been 27 games. However, the streak fell 11 short of the all-time record of 48 games with a lead set by the '98 Yankees.

Who would have thought when the season started, that this weekend's 4-game set between the White Sox and the Baltimore Orioles would be such a key series? And the early storyline -- Sosa's return to Chicago -- ended up not happening as Sosa landed himself on the DL this week.

While pitchers and catchers reported last week, today is the day for the rest of the players to arrive for spring training. Both the Sox and Cubs camps will have plenty of new faces, but perhaps the biggest change will be the silence in the Cubs clubhouse that'll be without Sammy Sosa, and his infamous boombox. Sosa might want to throw that in with the condo however, because his new manager has laid down the law in the Orioles locker room. Lee Mazzilli requires all music to be listened to via headphones only. And that even means Sosa.

After months of bickering between Cubs management and Sammy Sosa, it's looking like a deal sending the fading superstar to the Baltimore Orioles will be completed sometime in the next couple days. A number of hurdles have to be crossed before the deal is official, but none likely to kill the deal.