Give Sammy his due; sizzling Sosa carving legacy as one of the greats.(Chicago Tribune)

CHICAGO _ Don't bother with an attorney. I'm pleading guilty on this one.

There's no way that many of us have appreciated Sammy Sosa properly. In a classic case of not being able to see the forest for all those trees, when we've watched the Cubs play on a regular basis since 1998 we've seen the shortcomings_the wild swings at two-strike pitches in the dirt, the clumsy play in the outfield, the arm that steadily deteriorated and, more than anything else, the insignificance of so many home runs.

With Sosa running a two-year campaign to get a record-setting contract, it was easy to wonder whether the Cubs should take that $20 million a year and spend it elsewhere. After all, if the Cubs could go 100-169 with Sosa hitting 93 home runs_as they did from June 9, 1999 through the end of the 2000 season_then what difference did it make if they hung onto Sosa?

Andy MacPhail weighed those questions. But luckily the Cubs' president and general manager was able to engineer a face-saving compromise on a contract extension (four years, $72 million) that kept him from having to decide at what price do you let Sosa walk?

Look at Sosa now. He has become the complete package. He was having a remarkably consistent season before getting white hot in August.

He has given himself a shot at his career-high of 66 homers, if not Mark McGwire's record of 70, but regardless he should wind up with the best season of his career.

The postscript is that when you stack 2001 on top of 1998, 1999 and 2000, Sosa very well might be generating the most productive four-year period for any hitter in the history of baseball.