Sosa will just have to wait 'til next year ...
The Tribune Company's recently established domestic-partner benefits will cover all eligible full-time employees of the Chicago Cubseveryone except the Cubs players themselves.
Tribune spokesman John Lyday said the players' benefits are negotiated separately by the Major League Baseball association. The Cubs are owned by the Tribune company.
Any other full-timers with the Cubs would be covered under the benefits plan, which was announced to employees earlier this month. Under the plan, same-sex and unmarried opposite-sex couples are eligible for health benefits after being in an exclusive domestic-partner relationship for at least 12 months, said Spencer Fletcher, director of employee communications for the Tribune Company.
The plan, which takes affect Jan. 1, 2002, will cover any of the company's 22,000 employees who are eligible for insurance, Lyday said.
By presstime, the Cubs had not provided information on how many of its employees will be affected.
After a 2000 merger with Times Mirror, the Tribune Co. owns 22 TV stations, including WGN TV ( Channel 9 ) , and 11 daily newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, Newsday and the Chicago Tribune.