What now, Chicago?

The Cubs have rid themselves of their offseason headache by taking a nice-sized claw hammer, aiming it ever-so carefully and smashing it squarely into their foreheads. If everything goes as planned, the Cubs finally have been freed of that so-and-so Sammy Sosa ... not to mention his egomaniacal ramblings, early sabbaticals and that annoying clubhouse boom box.

All the Cubs have to do now is live with the consequences.

After a winter of peddling their fading superstar, the Cubs have worked out a deal to trade away the smiling, flag-waving, homer-hitting, chest-thumping, finger-kissing face of the franchise, agreeing to give the Orioles a reported $12.5 million just to take him off their hands.

It will be a strange, sad ending for Sosa in Chicago, where he has been an icon for 13 years. He hit more than 500 home runs in a Cubs' uniform. He smashed 35 homers and drove in 80 runs in 126 games last season. And the Cubs, remember, have no one to replace him but a couple of could-bes and rumors.

Still, the team wanted Sosa gone -- yesterday was not soon enough -- and the Orioles were there. Which brings up two nagging questions: Is Sosa's off-field presence so bad that the Cubs will pay him not to play in Chicago? And, if that's true, why in the world would the Orioles want him?

The one-word answer to both questions: Desperation. This is a deal that positively drips with desperation.

From a baseball standpoint, the Cubs are worse off without their touchy prima donna in right field. Combined with the departure of free agent Moises Alou to the Giants, the Cubs are all arms and no bats now. They've lost 74 homers and almost 190 RBIs with Sosa and Alou gone, and whoever the Cubs may go to -- free agents Jeromy Burnitz or Magglio Ordonez or farmhand Jason Dubois -- they aren't likely to replace that.

The Orioles, clearly, are not much better off either, if at all. Sosa can still hit, though his numbers are undeniably in decline. But the Orioles don't need another bat nearly as much as they need another good starter or four. Sosa will launch some homers in Camden Yards and drive in a few runs. And the Orioles still will have a 4.70 team ERA.

The fact is, this deal has less to do with Sosa's baseball worth than it does his image. Sosa's popularity, both with his teammates and the fans of Chicago, has been sagging for years. The pouting over contracts, the steroids rumors, the corked bat, the head butting with managers -- all had become too much to bear.

And then, on the last game of last year's crushingly disappointing season, Sosa came late to the ballpark and left early. The Cubs docked him a game's pay, more than $87,000. And that was that.