On this anniversary of the 20,000th game in Cubs franchise history, the team is left with a 24-man roster after Carlos
Zambrano was suspended indefinitely yesterday after his outburst in the dugout at U.S. Cellular Field and a second confrontation directed towards camera crews outside the park as he was leaving the game.
There are some today who are defending Zambrano’s outbursts saying this is how you get the team fired up. However, you do not fire up a team by starting fights with your own teammates, especially the team’s leader Derrek Lee.
How many times have we seen Z lose his cool, apologize and then lose his cool again? How long should this go on before he decides to enroll in anger management sessions?
Following is a short timeline of Zambrano meltdowns, some of which were reported in today’s Chicago Tribune. It is by no means a complete list, but representative of the problem with the man and why at this point he is unfit to pitch for the Cubs.
June 4, 20021 – Z is suspended for five games and fined an undisclosed amount of money for his actions in a bench clearing brawl in a Triple-A game in Utah.
July 19, 2004 – Z hits Jim Edmonds twice during a game against the Cardinals, starts yelling at Edmonds and then at the umpire and receives a five-game suspension. After the game, Z says he was just doing his job and didn’t mean to hit Edmonds that he got caught up in the heat of the moment and should not have reacted the way he did. He received a five-game suspension.
June 1, 2007 – Z and catcher Michael Barrett have an all-out fight in the Cubs clubhouse after an altercation in the dugout, apparently initiated by Z. Barrett not only ended up in the hospital with a bloody lip, but was traded two weeks later.
September 3, 2007 – Fans boo Z for not being a team player and having a lousy outing. In the fifth inning, as he walks back to the dugout, he starts taking off his jersey and points to his head.
May 27, 2009 – Z’s temper gets the best of him as he disagrees with a call at the plate, bumps the umpire, gets ejected from the game, hurls a baseball that was destine for the bleachers and attacks the Gatorade container in the dugout. Z gets six-game suspension.
June 25, 2010 – Z verbally attacks both Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez in the dugout. He is told to go home, and on the way out of the Cell, verbally attacks some cameramen from local Chicago stations.
See a pattern here?
Many times we have heard Z apologize for his actions and promise to keep his calm. At one point he even said he had to face his daughters and promise them he would keep his cool.
Last night, Z had dinner with White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. Whether the two talked about this latest suspension or not is unknown, but it really doesn’t matter. Z has sealed his own fate. It may be wise for him to find some anger management classes before he starts to play with any other team.
Re-printed with permission of the author.
In addition to contributing to Sports Climax, Miriam Romain maintains a Chicago Cubs column for Examiner.com. and is Assistant Editor of SB Nation Chicago. The Chicago native has also been published in several Cubs annuals by Maple Street Press and is writing a book with the working title “Summers at Wrigley with my Dad.”
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