It is the end of the Alfonso Soriano era in Chicago. The Cubs have traded him to the New York Yankees for pitching prospect Corey Black. Soriano still has one-and-a-half years left on his existing contract that he will finish out with the Yankees. Soriano waived his no-trade clause to get traded to the Yanks. He left because he wanted to have a better chance to win a championship before he retires. He mentioned in reports that he loved the Cubs and would stay if they were a winning team and had a shot at going to the postseason. Personally, I wanted Soriano to finish out his contract with the Cubs so he could hit his 400th home run with them. In his tenure with the team, he hit 181 home runs with 526 RBIs. He had a .264 batting average and had an OPS of .812. He led the Cubs to two postseason appearances in 2007 and 2008. He hit 20 or more home runs every season he was with the Cubs. He left his mark on the organization and we appreciate that. Although many criticized his style of playing, it is still sad and unfortunate that he had to go. Right now, Soriano is a borderline Hall of Fame candidate with many astounding credentials including a 40 home run-40 stolen base season. He was scratched in his last game with the Cubs and had to leave to catch a flight to New York. Reports indicate that he hugged all of his teammates and had a very emotional good-bye with all of his teammates and personnel including manager Dale Sveum. No, he was not the greatest ever in the organization and no, he was not beloved by all of the Cubbie faithful, but I will miss him. I started following the Cubs since I was six. The first season I followed them, they lost 96 games. Then I remember the press conference to introduce Alfonso Soriano. I was excited for the new year and so were many Cubs fans. I have seen him play here for nearly seven years and he would always do something to make Cubs fans cheer. He became our only big-name superstar for a while until they called up Starlin Castro. He will not be missed by all the Cubs fans, but he will definitely be missed by me.
