"As the weather improves, the Fukudome T-shirts are starting to reappear, ghostlike, around town.

If they had been given proper burials at the bottom of drawers after last season, this wouldn't be a problem. You wouldn't have scary reminders that the guy who hit .188 in the final two months is returning soon to a batter's box near you.

But no. People plunked down good money for the shirts; they might as well wear them. So now you see fans, heads down, floating around in No. 1 shirts and jerseys. They would prefer you pay attention to the Cubs logo on the front, although, let's face it, some of them are self-conscious about that, too, given the haste with which the team left the postseason.

Cubs fans want to believe in Kosuke Fukudome again, and you can't fault them for it. That first game last year—3-for-3 with a game-tying home run in the ninth inning. Hard to beat it for sheer adrenaline rush. And that first month—the guy was an absolute revelation, hitting .327.

Cubs fans loved him, and they loved as only Cubs fans can, which is to say totally and with no regard for their own emotional safety. He would take the Cubs places they hadn't been! Even after he began to slow down, he still hit .279 in the first half and was an All-Star Game starter.

More than the player himself, Cubs fans loved the idea of him even more. Our own Ichiro!

But he wasn't that. As a new season beckons, people would settle for .270 out of him. Some of them would sacrifice their firstborn for .270 affixed next to Fukudome's name at the end of 2009.

Now that the scintillating quilting bee known as the World Baseball Classic is over, Fukudome is headed the Cubs' way again. And what they're left with is crossed fingers. They're hoping the Fukudome who shows up in Mesa, Ariz., is not the one who hit .217 with three homers and 22 runs batted in during the second half of 2008.

But the truth is, the club has no idea what it's going to get. You're supposed to have an idea when you sign a guy to a four-year, $48 million contract. Four years and $48 million says you think a player is a mainstay on your team. It says you have decided he's a core member of your organization.

But if Fukudome isn't what general manager Jim Hendry thought he was, then he remains a question with no good answer. Continuing to stick him in the lineup because you want him to turn into a player is like trying to dry yourself with a wet towel."