To be honest, it seems like yesterday. Just a few days ago, maybe. Kosuke Fukudome was new to the Cubs, was a signing hailed by both fans and fellow players and media people and sabermatricians and everyone else. He was going to be The Piece, the on-base percentage machine the Cubs have always lacked at the No. 2 spot.
And then on Opening Day, he hit a home run that made him a god at Wrigley. One day, and fans went nuts -- chanting his name, buying merchandise (occasionally racist merchandise at that), and swiftly placing him on that Cubs pedestal so few players achieve.
Now? Fukudome might as well be Alex Gonzalez.
A miserable, three-month slump at the end of the year destroyed Fukudome's confidence, and an 0-8 outing in the Cubs' epic collapse last week might have sealed the right fielder's fate, even if no one knows what that fate is yet:
But if it were up to Fukudome, would he have preferred to change planes in Los Angeles and continue westward for Tokyo? Does the Cubs' first high-profile Japanese import have the toughness to dig himself out of the hole he has fallen into? Will the Cubs give him the chance?
One scout interviewed Saturday suggested a course of action that could be tough to swallow. "He has to go to the minors," the scout said. "He has to get rid of all those habits, pulling out on pitches, collapsing. He'll never hit the way he's hitting now, and this is a tough place to work out your problems. Always has been."
What will probably happen is the Cubs will give Fukudome a month next year; maybe more, maybe less, depending on how well he hits in spring training. If he looks to have fixed his swing and found his formerly legendary selectiveness at the plate, all will be forgotten. If he doesn't? Jim Hendry will waste no time on a trade.
Like everything to do with the Cubs these days, Fukudome's fall is a sad story. But maybe the story isn't quite done yet.
