SMILIN’ SAMMY

MESA, Ariz. —  Sammy Sosa walked into the Chicago Cubs clubhouse and stopped at the doorway, a sly smile on his face. Peering inside, he looked around before letting out a high-pitched scream.

As his teammates laughed, Sosa walked to his locker, smiling and yelling, “Good morning! Good morning! How you all doing?”

Nobody has to ask Sosa how he’s doing this spring. He’s so cheery he makes Barney the ever-happy Dinosaur look like a grouch, with a permanent grin on his face and fist bumps and salsa music for everyone.

Unlike last summer, when talks of a trade left him brooding and sullen, he’s refusing to let lengthy negotiations on a contract extension spoil his good mood.

“What happened to me last year was an experience. I’m not going to let that bother me this year again,” he said. “I’m at a different level, I just want to play baseball. I just want to play baseball and be happy.”

Sosa is the first to admit he was miserable early last season. He got into a public spat with manager Don Baylor for what he thought were critical remarks Baylor had made about his play.

Then, just as that drama ended, Sosa gave the Cubs a midsummer deadline to sign him to a longterm contract extension or trade him. For weeks, rumors swirled around the Cubs clubhouse about where Sosa was going and when.

The tension and uncertainty weighed on Sosa--and the rest of the Cubs. Though he hit .307 in June, it was his second-lowest monthly average, and his five homers tied his season low. The Cubs, meanwhile, went 12-13 in June. By the end of the month, they were 14 1/2 games out of first place.

“I don’t even want to remember what happened,” Sosa says.

After a deal that would have sent him to the New York Yankees fell through, Sosa decided enough was enough. He told the Cubs he wanted to finish the season in Chicago and would no longer agree to a trade.

“When Sammy made up his mind he was going to focus on playing the game, he just carried us,” said Eric Young, the Cubs second baseman. “He got so hot it was scary.”

With no more distractions, Sosa was able to concentrate on the game. And as his mood lifted, so did his numbers. He finished with a league-high 50 home runs, joining Mark McGwire and Babe Ruth as the only players with more than two 50-homer seasons.

And his other numbers were even more impressive. He hit a career-high .320 and drove in 138 runs. He hit 38 doubles and drew 91 walks.

“The second half, I found myself,” Sosa said. “I told myself, ‘Be ready every day. Wake up and be ready every day.”’

But what about this year? Sosa is in the final year of a $42.5 million, four-year contract, and the offseason came and went without an extension. Sosa’s believed to be looking for six-year deal that would pay him $20 million a year, while the Cubs want a four-year deal for between $17 million and $18 million per season.

Though Sosa’s agents and Andy MacPhail, the Cubs president and general manager, all say they’re optimistic something will get done, there was no telling which Sosa would show up at spring training.

Would it be the happy Sammy, smiling and laughing? Or would it be the anti-Sammy, unhappy and disruptive?

“I thought he was going to come in just the way he’s been,” said Baylor, who had several “positive” talks with Sosa at the annual fan convention.

“He’s all business. It’s been a real nice spring so far, having him on board with everything we’ve done.”

Though Sosa made his usual late entrance, showing up six days after everyone else did, he’s settled right in. In an effort to change the Cubs’ “Lovable Loser” mentality--they lost 90-plus games in three of the last four seasons--Baylor brought in fitness guru Mack Newton for a daily torture stretch/motivational speech.

Corny as the idea might sound, the players are all buying into it. Even Sosa.

“The first day I came in, I went to the room with everybody and he started talking and it was like outer space!” Sosa said. “Then after that, he started saying some things that made sense to me.

“He gives us reminders of what we need to do to be together, to be a team leader, believe in ourselves,” he added. “That makes a lot of sense.”

Sosa is also taking on more of a leadership role. With Mark Grace gone--Chicago let Mr. Cub of the ‘90s go in the offseason after 13 years--the Cubs are looking for new players to step up.

Sosa has never been a rah-rah type of guy, preferring to show his leadership by being on the field every day; he’s averaged 160 games a season since 1997.

He also quietly gives players pointers or works with them when the cameras aren’t around. When Matt Stairs went 3-for-3 in an exhibition game, he credited the work he’d done with Sosa.

But with Grace gone, Sosa knows he needs to be a more visible presence with his teammates.

“Anybody can be a leader by talking,” he said. “But are you going to accept the challenge of playing like a leader? That’s going to make a difference.”

And so will Sosa’s mood.

“If he’s happy, you’ll see a lot of guys feed off that happiness,” Young said. “He has a way, whether he knows it or not, that guys follow.

“If he stays happy, this is going to be a happy year.”