It all started in the 2004 season. The league instituted new testing for steroids, and suddenly Sammy was doing his home run hops on balls barely hit to the warning track. During that summer, Sammy sneezed in the clubhouse and injured himself so badly he missed nearly a month of games.
The Cubs fans didn't officially desert him, however, until the team collapsed the last week of the 2004 season. In the final game of the year, Sammy left in a huff before the game was over. His teammates took that opportunity to bash his boombox into pieces with a baseball bat, an ignominious end to his Cubs career.
Sammy got the last 35 home runs of his major league career with the Orioles and the Rangers. His 600th career home run came against the Cubs in an inter-league game, but by that time, his love affair with Chicago was long gone.
