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Column: A teachable moment — and the true meaning of Jackie Robinson’s legacy to Black baseball players

Jackie Robinson was in headlines this weekend when New York Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson referred to Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson as “Jackie” during Saturday’s game, igniting a brouhaha between the two teams.Whether Donaldson was joking around, as he insisted, or used Robinson’s name in a “racist” manner, as Sox manager Tony La Russa claimed, it was certain to be a hot button debate throughout baseball.AdvertisementNo matter where you stand on the issue, there’s no arguing Jackie Robinson’s name remains as relevant in baseball today as he was when he broke the major-league color barrier 75 years ago.If cooler heads prevail, this could be a teachable moment for Donaldson and anyone else trying to understand why using Robinson’s name was considered “disrespectful” by Anderson and “racist” by La Russa.AdvertisementRobinson endured slights both public and private throughout his career, as most fans surely know. The mere idea of a Black man entering the majors was such a sensitive topic in the late 1940s that Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey had an early meeting with broadcaster Red Barber to give him a heads-up.[ [Don’t miss] Tim Anderson pays tribute to Jackie Robinson’s legacy in video call with members of the White Sox’s ACE program: ‘Being able to put on 42 is different’ ]Barber, who was born in Mississippi, was as popular a radio broadcaster in New York as Harry Caray later became in Chicago. According to Kostya Kennedy’s book, “True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson,” Barber moved to Florida as a child and witnessed a Black man “tarred and feathered and forced through the streets by the Ku Klux Klan.”Kennedy wrote Rickey wanted Barber to know of his plan to integrate the Dodgers so Barber could look for another job if the broadcaster felt he couldn’t call a game with white and Black players. After the meeting, Barber went home and told his wife, Lylah, what Rickey had said, then informed her he was going to leave the Dodgers.Lylah said “let’s have a martini” and think things over for a few days. Kennedy wrote “Barber came to a couple of what he would characterize as ‘self-realizations’ about the randomness of his or any other person’s lineage and place in the world; about the second great commandment, ‘Love thy neighbor,’ and about his role as a reporter.”Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson, wearing Jackie Robinson’s No. 42, yells after tagging out a baserunner at during a game at Guaranteed Rate Field on April 15, 2019. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tri / Chicago Tribune)Barber decided to stay and report what he saw. During a 1949 broadcast in St. Louis, he informed listeners Robinson and two other Black players were forced to stay in an inferior hotel in town without air conditioning.“By informing his audience of Brooklyn Dodgers fans of these circumstances, Barber was in a small but direct way influencing how some people thought,” Kennedy wrote. “It was a vivid situation.”Baseball honors Robinson every April 15 by having all its players, coaches and managers wear his No. 42. But once that annual celebration ends, it seems like Robinson’s legacy is forgotten for the rest of the season and he becomes just another great player from baseball’s past.[ [Don’t miss] White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson isn’t about to stop his crusade to change the game: ‘They don’t want me to have fun’ ]It doesn’t have to be that way, and perhaps Donaldson inadvertently helped some remember the true meaning of Robinson’s legacy with his ill-chosen remark during Saturday’s game in the Bronx.AdvertisementFor those looking to understand the importance of Robinson and other contributions of Black players to the game, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., is updating an old exhibit with the help of Chicago Cubs great Fergie Jenkins.Fergie Jenkins speaks during the unveiling of his statue outside of Wrigley Field on May 20, 2022. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)“Twenty-five years ago when MLB did the 50th anniversary of Jackie breaking the color barrier, we put out our first Black baseball exhibit,” Josh Rawitch, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, told me Friday during Jenkins’ statue unveiling outside Wrigley Field. “This year we’ve announced we’re going to redo the whole thing. Obviously a lot has changed in 25 years.”The exhibit at the Hall of Fame museum, previously called “Pride and Passion,” has been renamed “Ideals and Injustices,” a better description of the game’s refusal to integrate until Rickey’s bold move in 1947.“It’s basically the story of Black baseball from mostly the Negro Leagues and up through Jackie and into the ‘70s,” Rawitch said. “It didn’t really get updated after ‘97, so now we’re going to have a whole new exhibit that will take over a portion of the Hall of Fame.“We’ll also have a traveling exhibit that will go out to various Black communities and cities throughout the country. It’s a major initiative that we believe will tell the story of 150 years of Black baseball in America.”Their stories will be told anew — and just in time for the return of Hall of Fame induction ceremonies from pandemic-related limitations in 2020 and ‘21. Negro League greats Bud Fowler and Buck O’Neil — the first Black coach in the majors with the Cubs — will posthumously be inducted on July 24, along with former White Sox star Minnie Miñoso, who began his playing career in the all-Black league. Miñoso was considered “the Latino Jackie Robinson,” as Rawitch reminded me, and also endured bigotry and injustices during his major-league career.Advertisement[ [Don’t miss] Minnie Miñoso is on the Golden Days Era ballot — and the Chicago White Sox ‘trailblazer’ has plenty of support: ‘Minnie was our Jackie Robinson’ ]Jenkins, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991, will serve on the advisory board for the new exhibit.“We called him and he was excited to help us get the word out and tell the story right,” Rawitch said.It’s doubtful the Donaldson-Anderson imbroglio will rate a mention in the Hall’s exhibit, and it might be forgotten by the time the next baseball controversy surfaces.But it serves as a reminder of what the name Jackie Robinson still means to Black players who are following in Robinson’s footsteps and to the rich history of a game he helped change for the better.

Sports

How sidearm reliever Scott Effross developed into a weapon for the Chicago Cubs: ‘He’s not fazed by the moment’

When Chicago Cubs reliever Scott Effross first learned his sidearm delivery, he watched a lot of hitting videos.Because he uses more lower-half load than a conventional pitching delivery, his process more closely resembles a hitter’s. Dissecting those hitting videos became a valuable tool, helping him tap into his lower half more while using his hips and core to get down the mound and keep his arm path consistent.Advertisement“I’d see how guys would stay on their back legs and drive through,” Effross told the Tribune. “Obviously pitchers use their lower half really well regardless, but for me, that was probably the biggest adjustment, learning how to use that in a completely different way.”Nearly three years ago, during the Double-A Tennessee All-Star break, Effross committed to the new sidearm delivery in hopes of changing his career trajectory. Effross, 28, has quickly become a versatile bullpen option for manager David Ross. Effross leads the Cubs with 19 appearances, owning a 2.04 ERA, team-high 11.5 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 203 ERA+. His 17⅔ innings are most among their relievers aside from the multi-inning, spot-start work of Keegan Thompson.AdvertisementNone of his 10 inherited runners scored. Only 14 MLB relievers had a higher WAR than Effross’ 0.5. He gives the Cubs a different look: Effross has the seventh-lowest average release point — 3.67 feet above the ground — in the majors. The average is 5.82 feet.Cubs reliever Scott Effross delivers during the fifth inning against the Pirates on April 24, 2022, at Wrigley Field. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)“If you were to ask me three years ago this is where I’d be now, I’d say that’s better than best-case scenario,” Effross said. “I still feel like I have a long way to go. There’s still things I’m learning every single day about the motion and how to attack hitters and just being a big-league pitcher in general.”Through the first 2½ years of his new delivery and arm slot, Effross thought about his mechanics and how the process felt every time he threw the baseball. Now he’s at the point of fine-tuning, establishing better consistency and making adjustments.Effross credited assistant pitching coach Daniel Moskos for helping implement small mechanical adjustments. Early in spring training, Effross’ posture became too bent and didn’t have enough lower-half load. It was caught quickly, and Effross got on track heading into the season. Repeating his release point has been a big part of Effross replicating mechanics.The Cubs have been willing to use him in spots ranging from one batter (four times) to pitching in two innings (four).“He can do so many different things, he’s not fazed by the moment,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. “He can do a lot of different things. But it all comes back to just the consistency of the work for him and him being able to be himself no matter what that situation is.”[ Column: Fergie Jenkins soaks up the adoration as the Chicago Cubs unveil his statue outside Wrigley Field ]Figuring out how to balance platoon splits for a low arm slot is important, especially with the three-batter-minimum rule in place. Being competitive against left-handed hitters is a must. Effross’ changeup has become an important piece to his four-pitch mix. He averages 47 inches of vertical movement with his changeup, according to Baseball Savant; the league average is 31 inches.His success against left-handed hitters this season — 0-for-18 with eight strikeouts and one walk — marks a big step in his development.AdvertisementChicago Tribune SportsWeekdaysA daily sports newsletter delivered to your inbox for your morning commute.“What’s unique about his is just the amount of depth that it gets,” Moskos said of his changeup. “If you compare movement profiles, it’s like a left-handed slurve. It’s moving like a left-handed breaking ball, not like a right-handed changeup, which left-on-left breaking balls tend to perform pretty well. So it’s something that is really unique to the arm slot, and the pitch moves a ton. It’s really sharp, and that’s why he’s had success with it.”The more Effross throws his changeup, the more comfortable the right-hander has become with going to it on any count and utilizing the pitch off his four-seam fastball. He has not given up a hit off his changeup (or fastball) this season, an offspeed pitch he has predominately used against left-handed hitters.Veteran catchers Willson Contreras and Yan Gomes have helped Effross know when to best incorporate certain pitches given the situation.“At the end of the day, these are big-league hitters, but you’ve got to look and see what they’re giving you and judging swing to swing,” Effross said. “Willie and Yan have been huge for me. They see something in a swing and they’re like, oh, we can capitalize on this and take a little bit of the thinking out of it for me.”[ Chicago Cubs President Jed Hoyer is confident his long-term game plan is working: ‘We’re on the right track’ ]Baseball is a game of constant adjustments. With more data and information on Effross, look for hitters to adjust in the coming weeks to his delivery and how he uses his pitches. At least that’s what should happen. But Moskos noted that teams typically don’t game plan their lineups for an outlier reliever, which Effross and his low arm slot present.There aren’t many big-league pitchers who give the same look as Effross, further making him an important bullpen option for the Cubs.Advertisement“Most teams are trying to adjust by just not swinging, but he throws strikes so that you can’t take that route with him,” Moskos said. “That’s the hard part, like, he’s just coming right after you. So it will be interesting to see because obviously the league makes adjustments to you, but I’m not sure what the adjustments are going to be just yet.”ExpandAutoplayImage 1 of 10The unveiling of the Fergie Jenkins statue takes place outside Wrigley Field, May 20, 2022. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Sports

Diary of Our City: Tribune celebrates 175 years of Chicago stories

A newspaper is not, of course, a living thing.AdvertisementIt is, by its humblest definition, ink on paper, and that is the way it has been for a very long time. For the Chicago Tribune, that time began June 10, 1847, and over the next several Sundays, we will chart the 175-year history of this newspaper.That is, of course, a lot to bite off, for it is a story that has unfolded against the backdrop of this remarkable city. Chronicling Chicago, as well as the “outside” world, has made for a colossal pile of Tribune pages, full of triumphs and tragedies, oddities and oddballs, events and people both wonderful and wild.Advertisement[ [Read more] Chicago Tribune’s 175th anniversary ]I hope to surprise you with some things you might never have known, enlighten you and even amuse you. Curious about how the paper covered the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre? The first White Sox game? Would you like to know, for instance, the part the Tribune played in creating “Little Orphan Annie” or how the infamous “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline happened?Who coined the phrase “World’s Greatest Newspaper” after previously calling the Tribune merely “Chicago’s Greatest Daily”? When did the famous “Injun Summer” appear and when, and why did it vanish? What did the paper call “the world’s most beautiful office building”?I hope some of you will be reminded of headlines past and of writers and photographers once part of your daily lives, along with those still laboring to bring you the news today. Others, we hope, will be reminded that a newspaper plays a vital role in building community, fostering debate on important issues and political decisions.Larry Fein, foreground, and colleagues work in the fourth floor Chicago Tribune newsroom at Tribune Tower in the 1970s. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page in the newsroom in the 1970s. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)Journalism is, it has been said to the point of cliche, the first rough draft of history. There have been other definitions, of course, one offered by the city’s 48th mayor, Richard J. Daley, who said, “A newspaper is the lowest thing there is.”AdvertisementWhen the Tribune was born, Chicago was in its infancy, having been incorporated as a city just a decade before. Its streets were clamorous and raucous, but many of its 17,000 or so citizens could see that the city was building rapidly, though none could foretell its future.On the day of the newspaper’s birth, 400 copies were printed and sold for three cents each. The four-page publication contained little news and a few opinions, and those basically existed to take up space between advertisements.[ [Don’t miss] Vintage Voices: A look back at Chicago Tribune columns through the years ]The streets are now paved (no less noisy), but the essence of how news is gathered and delivered, even in the face of stunning technological leaps, remains the same as it has always been: get the story and get it to the readers.The ways in which this has been accomplished have changed through the decades — though always with an emphasis on speed — and so have the means by which news is gathered. Indeed, even the notion of what constitutes news has undergone frequent redefinition. But the Tribune’s birth coincided neatly with an era in which the world was rapidly shrinking, making news of people and events more readily available and more rapidly transmitted.The Chicago Tribune’s Action Express, a mobile newsroom, was equipped with ultra-modern communications equipment and comfortable facilities for interviews, circa 1968. The Tribune reported, “Action Express, a mobile newspaper office capable of pulling up to any street corner in any neighborhood, will be introduced to the city and suburbs Sunday by The Chicago Tribune.” (Chicago Tribune historical photo)The Tribune has shared this city’s history and, in ways that might surprise, it has also helped to shape that history and you will read about how. You will learn of some of the strong personalities who guided the newspaper — among them Joseph Medill, William Bross, Joseph Petterson and the larger-than-life Robert R. McCormick — and see how the newspaper covered the city’s world fairs and bloody gangsters, mayors and madams, the birth of the skyscraper and the flights of Michael Jordan. Surely, the city would exist without the Tribune, but I’m glad the newspaper has been here, and remains here, to tell its tales.I have been selected to write these stories, I suppose, because I have written many stories about the city’s past. As well, my history with newspapers, and this newspaper specifically, goes deep. I have worked here for more than three decades, but every member of my family called this publication home.AdvertisementMy mother, then Marilew Cavanagh, walked into this building for the first time in the summer of 1937. She had just turned 18. She did many things at the paper, working in the travel department, the fashion department, writing synopses of movie reviews, writing memos and handling many chores for various section editors.[ [Don’t miss] From canoes to skyscrapers: A newspaper is born, and Chicago is catapulted to the world’s stage ]She also got to know the boss at the time, Col. Robert R. McCormick, who took a liking to her and often asked her to walk the dog — a German shepherd, Lotta, so named because she had a lot of puppies — that he brought with him to Tribune Tower each day. “The colonel was a presence,” she told me. “And he scared everybody half to death.”She left the tower shortly after marrying her first husband in 1940. When she did, an in-house publication devoted half a page to the event. Under a headline that read “Marriage of Marilew Saddens the Boys in Editorial” were the signatures of dozens of editors and reporters.One signature not on that page was that of my father, Herman Kogan, who had started working nights as a rewrite man at the tower in 1939 and thus didn’t meet the woman who would be his wife and my mother until years later. He left the paper and the city to fight in World War II as a Marine Corps correspondent, and then he worked for the Sun-Times and Daily News.Rick Kogan’s father, Herman, left, is shown in the Pacific as a young Marine correspondent, circa 1943. Rick’s mother, Marilew Cavanagh, right, is shown in a Chicago Tribune advertisement in 1940. Cavanagh started working at the paper in 1937 when she was 18 years old. (Rick Kogan and Chicago Tribune archive)My younger brother Mark worked here as an intern and copy editor for three summers in the early 1970s while attending Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.I grew up in a home and in an era in which newspapers were held in high, almost holy, regard. That was reflected by what I would see and read walking into the lobby of the Tribune’s former home in the tower by the river, a quote from playwright Arthur Miller carved into the wall: “A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.”AdvertisementMy first story appeared in this paper on Jan 21, 1973. I started regularly contributing stories in 1985 and was a few years later hired as a full-time employee. I have written thousands of stories for the paper, and through this series I will attempt, with the considerable collaborative efforts of colleagues Marianne Mather, Kori Rumore and Jocelyn Allison, to fight the urge to self-indulgence, self-aggrandizing and chest-thumping. I will strive for something that is not hagiography but rather offers you subjective highlights (and some lowlights) from the paper’s past.As Lloyd Wendt, a distinguished newspaperman and collaborator with my father on many books about Chicago history, wrote in his magisterial 1979 book, “Chicago Tribune: The Rise of a Great American Newspaper,” “The metropolitan newspaper never sleeps, never rests, but writes its autobiography in daily book-length segments.”[ [Don’t miss] Were you a Tribune newspaper carrier? Share your story. ]Before coming to the Tribune, I worked for the Daily News and the Sun-Times, and the Daily News comes to mind now. The great writer/editor M.W. Newman wrote the eulogy for the paper, a lyrical piece of journalism that started on the paper’s final front page on March 4, 1978, and ended like this: “The writer’s newspaper ends as it began — a momentous Book of Life. But that story isn’t over, just the Daily News’ part of it. A newspaper dies, but newspapering goes on. Life goes on, the sequel and all the tomorrows after that.”You may be reading this on a computer or a phone or perhaps the old fashioned way of ink on paper. In whatever way this is coming to you, it is brought by the latest gathering of hundreds of people working every day to give you various forms of the Tribune, and hundreds of thousands of you are still reading it. That’s a story worth telling. The point, I suppose, is that solid and energetic journalism is not a luxury but an essential, no matter how delivered.Newman was correct, of course. Tomorrows await, but now it’s time to revisit the yesterdays.Follow along with all of our 175th anniversary coverage and sign up to receive a special edition of Daywatch in your inbox with anniversary coverage.

Sports

Column: The futures of Tony La Russa and Willson Contreras could lie in White Sox and Cubs’ seasons of the past

When you’ve watch enough baseball in Chicago, you soon realize what goes around comes around.The angst accompanying the early-season travails of the White Sox is not unfamiliar. Neither is fan anxiety over the trade status of a popular Cubs player.AdvertisementHere’s a look at how two Sox and Cubs seasons from the past relate to the present.Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa in the dugout, May 15, 2022, at Guaranteed Rate Field. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)Been there. Done that.AdvertisementIt’s not happening.If you’re old enough to remember what happened all those years ago in a ballpark that has since been demolished and replaced by a parking lot, you know this question has been discussed a time or two, even by Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who eventually pulled the trigger.The 2022 White Sox have followed the same basic trajectory of the 1983 White Sox, with one common denominator — the manager. Or two, if you count Reinsdorf.Despite an abundance of talent, the Sox started 8-10 in April 1983 and followed with a 12-15 record in May. La Russa’s team is 19-20 heading into Sunday’s doubleheader against the New York Yankees.Before Saturday’s 7-5 loss to the Yankees, the Sox ranked near the bottom in the majors in hitting and defense while the pitching was middle of the pack.Almost no one believes La Russa’s team is incapable of turning things around and cruising to an American League Central title. But until the Sox do take off, it’s only an educated guess.The blame has mostly fallen on the shoulders of La Russa, whom Reinsdorf brought in to take the Sox from Point B to Point C. Whether La Russa could have done anything differently to avoid the mediocre start seems irrelevant. White Sox Twitter has made up its mind.The response has been eerily similar to the vocal cries of disgruntled fans in 1983. You might have tweeted your displeasure with the current manager to a few hundred followers, but your grandfather probably shouted it during games at half-filled Comiskey Park in the early 1980s.AdvertisementBut the 1983 Sox moved into first place in the AL West on July 18, went on a 59-26 second-half run and won the division by 20 games before losing to the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship Series.Years later, La Russa in a Tribune interview recalled the skepticism fans and media displayed during that “Winning Ugly” summer.“When I was here, they hadn’t won anything since ’59,” La Russa said. “As soon as you’d lose two or three games in a row, they’re like, ‘It’s the beginning of the swoon!’ In ’83 it was kind of a rallying cry with us.“We had lost two of three to Baltimore in August, and we were going to New York on a trip. Everyone was saying, ‘Oh, the wheels are coming off.’ I think that’s one reason we won by 20 games.”The Sox swept the Yankees from Aug. 15-17 in the Bronx and clinched the division on Sept. 17, cruising through a 22-6 September.“We didn’t cruise,” La Russa said, disputing the narrative. “We just kept kicking butt. We refused to get our foot off of their necks. Part of it was to prove people wrong.”AdvertisementAnd here we are again with the Sox in New York playing an important series against the league’s best team with a chance to prove people wrong.None of La Russa’s current players was born in 1983. Only a few media members who were eyewitnesses remain. La Russa already was a polarizing figure by then and had been on the managerial hot seat since July 29, 1982, when Reinsdorf admitted during a postgame news conference the Sox were thinking about firing him.“This is a critical time,” Reinsdorf said. “If we keep playing like this, we’ll be dead.”Reinsdorf didn’t blame La Russa for the record or poor play. But he said expectations clearly were not being met.“If Tony La Russa was fired, we’d be firing a good manager,” Reinsdorf said. “A decision like that would be made because the team is going so badly and you can’t fire the team, you fire the leader.”La Russa remained the manager until GM Ken “Hawk” Harrelson fired him in 1986 after another slow start. Reinsdorf repeatedly said it was the worst baseball decision of his tenure as Sox chairman, and he rectified the alleged mistake by rehiring La Russa in 2020.AdvertisementHe still can’t fire the team. But, sorry Twitter, he won’t fire the manager either.Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras celebrates after scoring on a double by teammate Yan Gomes in the fourth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Wrigley Field, May 19, 2022. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)The biggest question for Cubs President Jed Hoyer in 2022 is whether to extend the contract of the popular catcher, who becomes a free agent after the season. If he doesn’t feel a deal is possible, Hoyer could trade Contreras for prospects to continue restocking the farm system.The Cubs already appear out of contention in the National League Central with a 15-24 record after Saturday’s 7-6, 10-inning loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Wrigley Field. A wild-card bid also appears unlikely.Contreras is off to a great start, entering Saturday leading all catchers with a .391 OBP and an .865 OPS. He exited in the third inning Saturday with right hamstring tightness after stealing a base in the third inning.Contreras also is the heart and soul of the team and one of only three players remaining — along with Kyle Hendricks and Jason Heyward — from the 2016 champions.The game’s highest-paid catcher is the Philadelphia Phillies’ J.T. Realmuto, who signed a five-year, $115 million deal in 2021, breaking the record for catchers with a $23.1 million per-year average. Contreras figures to be in that $23 million per year range if the Cubs let him walk, even though he just turned 30 and has some wear and tear on his knees after nearly 600 games behind the plate.AdvertisementCubs President Andy MacPhail faced a similar dilemma during the summer of 1997 with another team out of contention. Would he trade outfielder Sammy Sosa or potentially let him walk as a free agent after the season?MacPhail answered that question on June 27, 1997, signing Sosa to a four-year, $42.5 million extension and making him the fourth $10 million per-year player along with Albert Belle, Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield.After the news was announced, MacPhail conceded Sheffield’s six-year, $61 million deal was a “key measuring stick” for Sosa’s extension. Some fans questioned whether Sosa deserved to be in the same category as Bonds, who was then an all-around player.“If we didn’t feel that way, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” MacPhail said.Sosa’s agent, Adam Katz, said Sosa took less money to stay a Cub.“I let it be known to Andy, ‘We’re not looking for a home run, we’re looking for a double,’” Katz said.AdvertisementSosa’s contract turned out to be a bargain for the Cubs. He turned into one of the game’s greatest sluggers in 1998, helping to fill Wrigley Field and make the team a goldmine for Tribune Co., which then owned the team. Sosa’s accomplishments were later put into question by steroid allegations, but the tens of millions he made the Cubs owners from 1998-2004 already was in the bank.Sosa remains persona non grata with the current owners, the Ricketts family, and he hasn’t returned to Wrigley since being dealt after the ‘04 season. Whether Contreras has Sosa’s star power or charismais debatable, but he’s undisputedly one of the game’s best catchers.Like Sosa he wants to remain a Cub. What is unknown is whether he’d settle for a “double” instead of a home run, giving the Rickettses a hometown discount. Asked about Contreras on Thursday, Hoyer said “our relationship is good” while declining to discuss the catcher’s future.Cubs fans have made their feelings about Contreras known. Now they wait for Hoyer’s answer.