So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good Night!

Yes, he's gone. And while the champagne bottles are popping here at Ivy Chat HQ, today's celebration needs to be tempered by another realization. This is not a moment of victory, but a moment to acknowledge another colossal failure by the Chicago National League Ballclub.

Corey Patterson was to be a cornerstone of the franchise for the first decade of the 21st century. He was going to be a new breed of Cub in the Alex Rodriguez mold: Speed, power, defense. Instead, he became the poster boy for everything wrong with professional sports today: Expectations of immediate return on investment, failure to teach, and ego.

Corey leaves Chicago as a prime example of how NOT to promote a young player AND as a prime example of how NOT to behave as a young player for whom everything came easy at the amateur level.

There is more to see about this deal. Like, "Do the Cubs have to pay any of his 2006 salary?" The final punctuation on this story may not be written for a few days to come.

All that said, "WHOOPIE!!!!!"