Sneezin' Sosa just latest Cub struck by Game 6 curse.

Byline: Mike Downey

CHICAGO _ Sneezin' Sammy Sosa had to sit out the Cubs' last game because he got hurt going ah-choo.

This makes him Victim No. 6 of the Game 6 From Hell.

Seven men from the Cubs' starting lineup in Game 6 of last year's National League Championship Series are now in pain or no longer with the team.

So don't tell me you aren't afraid of ghosts and goats.

Somebody in this organization had better organize a seance or a sacrifice in a hurry before Wrigley Field crumbles into dust like a mummy's tomb.

Quick, call a witch doctor, call a voodoo priest, call a ghostbuster, call Van Helsing, call somebody.

Moises Alou, Aramis Ramirez and Paul Bako are the last remaining Cubs from the Game 6 lineup who have lasted as long as mid-May without a freak injury or being let go.

One by one, all the survivors are being voted off Wrigley island by the tribal council.

If you didn't believe in curses before, you had better study up on it because somebody out there is sticking pins into an Ernie Banks bobblehead doll.

Disabled: Mark Prior, Alex Gonzalez, Mark Grudzielanek.

Dismissed: Kenny Lofton, Randall Simon.

And now Sneezin' Sammy.

He sneezed so hard before Sunday's game in San Diego that he suffered back spasms and had to take himself out, a weird occurrence you might have expected in a previous Cubs era from a Jose Cardenal or a Turk Wendell.

It really would be a shame if Sosa had to miss Tuesday night's game against the San Francisco Giants because of a sneeze.

Just to be safe the Cubs should either quarantine Alou, Ramirez and Bako from the rest of the team or keep them in protective bubble wrap.

I fear the curse has yet to do its worst damage.

I was in Los Angeles last week when Matt Clement of the Cubs had his 18-pitch duel with the Dodgers' Alex Cora, which culminated with Cora hitting a home run.

Clement did everything but throw the ball into Cora's locker. He couldn't get one by the guy. Fourteen consecutive fouls, 13 to the same side. Man, that's a lot of souvenirs. I never saw anything quite like it.

Jack Brickhouse used to talk on TV all the time about Luke Appling, a long-ago White Sox star, and how fouling off pitches was Appling's specialty. I sat there thinking, big deal. That's a specialty?

I have a new appreciation for fouls after Cora's. What I did not appreciate was Carlos Zambrano hitting Cora with a pitch the next day. If it was an accident, OK. If it was on purpose, it was a cheap, no-class, foul thing to do.

A "well done" to Prior, meanwhile, for acquiring his diploma from the University of Southern California. Mark's first task as a college graduate should be to help me get Chicago's media to stop calling his school Southern Cal, a name everyone at USC detests.

Good move by the White Sox giving Willie Harris a look in center field. I was premature a month ago when I wrote that this team "can flat-out hit." The batting averages of several Sox players are much lower than I expected. Harris has earned his keep and deserves a shot to stay in the lineup. (Besides, I always did like center fielders named Willie.)

Hey, a Sacramento Kings scrub wouldn't try to pick a fight with a Minnesota Timberwolves superstar on purpose, would he? To get them both kicked out of a game? Nah. Of course not.

How did Tim Duncan and Derek Fisher both make last-second shots? I've seen the Bulls have trouble making last-quarter shots.

Happy to see somebody shut up Roy Jones Jr. in the ring for once. Jones might be "the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world," but the only thing that got pounded Saturday by Antonio Tarver was his face.

Don't bet the house on Smarty Jones just yet. Funny Cide won the Kentucky Derby last year and then took the Preakness without breaking a sweat. But everybody who bet on him in the Belmont Stakes went home with a pocket full of worthless tickets.

Ten Most Wanted, who once won the Illinois Derby, has been retired with a ligament injury. So I guess this means we no longer will see his face at the post office.

Well, I saw the movie and I saw the Spurs, but you know what? I've already forgotten the Alamo.

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ARCHIVE PHOTOS on KRT Direct (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): Sammy Sosa