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So, while the Cubs prepare to welcome Kosuke Fukudome with open arms and great expectations, they simultaneously severed ties with pitcher Mark Prior (who was welcomed in 2003 with great expectations) yesterday.

I’d like to say that I heard the news of Prior’s release with shock and sadness, but I’d be lying.

I have yet to hear all the sports writers and sports talk radio weigh in on the end of the “Prior era,” so my thoughts here are my own, not influenced by print or radio or TV sports media.

Mark Prior.
I was there. I witnessed Mark Prior’s first game for the Cubs 4 hazy summers ago. My friend Dave and his girlfriend (now wife) invited me to the Cubs game that evening. Dave had an extra ticket. The seats were terrific, upper deck, behind home plate.

I’ll use the old cliche and say there was an “electric buzz” in Wrigley, as fans had heard what Prior was capable of; Perfect mechanics, great fastball, great control, legs like tree trunks, dominating demeanor on the mound…a perfect complement to Kerry Wood.

Prior did not disappoint. From our seats on high we could hear the oh so satisfying “pop” of the ball hitting the catcher’s glove. He was throwing bb’s.

Prior would go on to win the game (if memory serves) and lead Cubs fans to believe that the future looked great.

2003 would become a magical season, and Prior would find himself as the Game 6 pitcher against the Florida Marlins, 8th inning, 5 outs from the World Series before the end came crashing down on the Cubs, and ultimately Mark Prior…

In the end, a disappointing end to a playoff run in 2003 and mounting nagging often “mysterious” injuries, as well as a demeanor and seeming arrogance towards the Cubs, media, and the fans proved too much.

As a fan, I was offended by Prior’s arrogance. While I fully understand that baseball starts with a “b” and that “b” is business, taking the Cubs to arbitration when he had missed a season with injury, believing that he deserved a salary raise was hard to stomach. A raise for what? Most time on the DL?

Kerry Wood no longer was the complement to Prior, but rather the antidote, the anti-Prior. Kerry giving the Cubs a “hometown” salary discount, giving thanks in the media to the Cubs management and staff for being patient with him (and his multiple injury plagued seasons)…thanking the FANS for continuing to be patient and support him. Prior would have done well to model himself on how Wood behaved.

So I say, goodbye Mark Prior. I know some team in MLB will take a chance with you, and I wish you the best. I hope that you learned something from your Cubs experience. I hope you learn some humility and learn that playing baseball with your talent is a blessing, not a right, despite what your father, agent and others may have told you in your career.

Perhaps you will go on to great success with another team. Perhaps a Cy Young award may be somewhere down the road. Perhaps another foray into the playoffs. Perhaps a “comeback player of the year award,” is in the offing.

Perhaps…but I doubt it.