Is there a worse teammate in baseball than Carlos Zambrano? Some people are just incapable of controlling their emotions, and Zambrano is one of the best living examples of that in sports. This past off-season, Carlos said he was cured of his anger management issues. Then he went and broke a bat over his knee because he wasn’t happy with a plate appearance. Now, Zambrano claims he is retiring.
Big Z did not have his best stuff on Friday night. As a result, he allowed five home runs to the Braves in a 10-4 loss. Zambrano’s night ended with an ejection after it appeared he was trying to hit Chipper Jones with two consecutive pitches. To those watching, it looked as if he wanted to be ejected after giving up back-to-back homers to Freddie Freeman and Dan Uggla.
Zambrano stared Jones down on his way out and the Atlanta bench emptied, but the Cubs dugout stayed put. Rather than taking his frustrations out on the water cooler, Carlos cleaned out his locker completely and left the ballpark. Rumor has it he has decided to retire — a couple of seasons earlier than he had planned.
“He didn’t have it tonight,” manager Mike Quade told the Chicago Tribune after the game. “I’m really disappointed. His locker is empty. I don’t know where he’s at. He walked out on 24 guys that are battling their (butts) off for him. I don’t know where he’s gone or what he’s doing. I heard he has retired, or talking about retiring.
“I can’t have a guy walking out on 24 guys, that’s for damn sure.”
“I’ve never seen that before, someone just get (ticked) off and leave and retire,”Aramis Ramirez added. “I’ve been around for awhile. Even with him, players don’t do that. He has been playing for awhile. He knows anyone can have a bad game, a bad week, a bad month. It happens to everybody.”
If Zambrano was unpopular in the Cubs clubhouse before, he’s even less popular now. Everyone goes through tough times over the course of the season but you don’t just walk out on your team without giving an explanation. The question is: Is he bluffing? At this point it may not matter. The Cubs would be foolish to allow him back and there’s no need for any other team to take a chance on him. What an unfortunate waste of talent.
