I’m not a huge fan of ESPN’s “Dream Job” for whatever reason – maybe because we only get to see Mike Hall on ESPN News really late at night. But I was flipping through the sports channels the other night and came across a group of Dream Job contestants debating whether the Cubs should trade Sammy Sosa.

One of the gentlemen – I couldn’t tell you which one because I gave up watching the show – insisted the that Cubs should keep him because he means so much to the city, the fans adore him and he puts people in the seats. I’ve watched about three minutes of this season’s Dream Job, and all I know is this guy isn’t going to win.

This time last week, Sosa was in the early stages of burning bridges with his manager. The fans were booing Sosa at every opportunity. And who knows? Maybe if he played a little better down the stretch, the seats at Wrigley would be full this weekend.

In-the-know baseball fans are surprised Sosa alienated his manager and teammates, which baffles me, because Sosa’s been this way every since his super-charged body went home-run-happy in 1998. That was a magical season for Sosa; that season alone will probably get him to Cooperstown. The Cubs fans went “Slammin’ Sammy” crazy after that year, and in the process, they started weeding out all the negatives associated with Sosa.

They treated him like a god despite his inability to hit the cut-off man – an inability that cost the Cubs dozens of runs over the last few years. They cheered every long ball, but turned blind eyes on all the strikeouts – 912 of them over the last six years – and the downward movement of his batting average.

And speaking of the long balls, we can’t forget the Sosa home- run hop, which as far as I’m concerned, is the same as Sosa raising his middle finger towards the mound. Sosa took to doing the hop after more and more swings as it became more popular, which meant he was hopping after hitting the ball off the top of the wall, which ultimately meant the hop was turning doubles into singles.

As more and more people began bowing down to Sosa, he started showing up late to spring training. He stopped stealing bases – he has two over the last four years, 16 over the last six. And his on-base-percentage went from a solid .437 in 2001 to a morbid .332 this season.

He even resorted to the ultimate no-no for a hitter: corking one’s bat, something I still refuse to believe was a mistake. Have you ever watched a ballplayer prepare a bat in the on-deck circle?

He looks at it up and down like Rambo admiring a machete. How Sosa went through all that and failed to see the giant “C” on the top of his bat is beyond me. And for those wondering, that bat shattered in the first inning, so Sosa wasn’t leading off, meaning he spent some time in the on-deck circle.

And all I’ll say about Sosa’s physical appearance is he seems to have been shrinking over the last two years.

The home runs were a nice boost here and there, and Sosa was actually an okay fielder – he made some great catches down the stretch this season. But Sosa was never on the same level as someone like Vlad Guerrero – a player to build your team around.

So after taking into consideration the $35 million the Cubs owe Sosa over the next two years, maybe the question isn’t, “Should the Cubs trade Sosa?”

Maybe it should be, “Can the Cubs trade Sosa?”

Yes.

That should sound better to Cubs fans. Surprisingly, the Chicago Tribune reported on Wednesday the Rangers and Royals have already shown interest. Jim Hendry shouldn’t worry about taking on a bad contract like Chan Ho Park’s. If the Rangers are really willing to offer Park and Alfonso Soriano, as the Tribune reported, Hendry should jump at the deal.

And after it’s all over with, and Sosa is back in Texas – hopefully – where he started his career, Cubs fans should feel relieved. Because at the rate Sosa’s popularity was soaring, he was to become one of, if not the most, beloved Cub ever – a sad thought.

Sosa won’t be wearing his Cubs hat and parading around Wrigleyville with a perpetual ear-to-ear smile thirty years from now a la Ernie Banks. He won’t be living and dying by every pitch in the press box like Ron Santo. And he won’t hold an honorary front office position, which Billy Williams currently holds.

It looks like Sosa will end his Cub career on bad terms, which is fitting, because for as much as the Cub fans adored him, he never exemplified the true Chicago Cub spirit.

Mike Szwaja is a senior in communications. He can be reached at [email protected].