Obviously, there are more examples (Barrett vs. Zambrano, Milton vs. Lou), but these were the first three incidents I thought of off the top of my head that didn't involve the Cubs organization.
After the Fielder/Parra fight, Ned Yost the Brewers' manager at the time said this:
"It's not a big deal," Yost said. "For eight months a year, we're a family, and at times things happen. Tempers flare up. But it's within the family, and it's a little bit rude when your neighbors are fighting next door for you to go over and ask what happened. That's kind of the case here. It's nobody's business what happened."
After Kent and Bond went at it, then-manager Dusty Baker had this take:
"We've been treading water lately, struggling," Baker said. "Things like that happen all the time. It usually doesn't happen in view of everybody on television. You saw the effect. The cause is our business."
After Ted and his manager, John Gibbons, came to alleged blows, the Blue Jays' team President, Paul Godfrey, had this to say:
"My opinion is that it's a one-night skirmish," Godfrey said. "I don't see any need for discipline. Ted and the manager worked it out between them."
Compare and contrast the reactions by the Cubs' organization following Carlos Zambrano yelling at the team and Derrek Lee yelling at Zambrano to shut up:
"His conduct was not acceptable," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said. "It has become a bit of a tired act."
and after Zambrano went and met Ozzie Guillen for a pre-arranged dinner on Friday night:
"I would have hoped that he would have stayed private and reflected on this," Piniella said.
and
And [Randy] Bush said he was "disappointed in that," and he "would have thought with the events of yesterday, Carlos would have went home, spent some time reflecting on what happened."
Keep in mind that Zambrano and Lee only yelled at each other. There were no fist fights, there wasn't even much holding the players back. They yelled at each other. Meanwhile, the other incidents involved actual violence being done to other human beings. The fighters' actions get swept under the rug and dismissed as a "heat of the moment" situation and dealt with internally. Zambrano's yelling gets him suspended and ideally would have involved sending him to bed without his dinner.
CCD at Waxpaperbeercup.com has a great post that details how this is just more of the same old nonsense from the Cubs organization that has a hard time parting with its former stars without first tearing them down in front of the world.
I have no problem with the Cubs deciding they want to move on from Z. That’s their choice. But you can handle it with class. This organization continues to be a bush league outfit. Maybe the new owner will change it, from what I’ve seen thus far I’m not holding my breath.
Tom Ricketts needs to send a message, and the message is not to the players the message should be to the front office that shit like this will not be tolerated. Doing hatchet jobs on players is not good for the player nor the team. It leaves a bad taste in everyones mouth and really shows what a soap opera the Cubs are.
Clearly, there are a couple of ways to handle situations like this: The right way (see the Blue Jays, Giants, and Brewers) or the wrong way (see the Cubs).
Zambrano is reportedly now not in contact with the Cubs and nobody seems to know where he is. I guess I wouldn't be in a hurry to respond to a team that has intimated fairly clearly that they don't want me anymore either. Who knows? Maybe he's sitting in his room with the phone, TV, and computer turned off thinking about what he did. Maybe he's figured he'll spend his time off trying to figure out where Lebron James is going to sign. Maybe he's looking at the standings and figuring out for which teams he will waive his no-trade clause.
Carlos, if you want my advice, just waive the no-trade for any team. It will almost assuredly be a better situation than where you are now.
It's a Way of Life.
------------------
UPDATE
------------------
Carrie Muskat just tweeted that the Cubs will be placing Zambrano on the restricted list and he will undergo treatment (I assume she means psychological).
There is no word about whether he is allowed to eat now.
Posts
1 comments:
Good stuff, Tim. It makes me laugh how poorly this organization has handled this.
Post a Comment
The easiest way to comment is to choose the Name/URL option from the Comment As dropdown menu below. You do not need to put in a URL for this option to work.
Sometimes upon submitting the comment, you will get an error saying there is a problem. Submit the comment again and it should work. I am looking into correcting this glitch.