Bad For Baseball

I was fortunate enough as a youngster to be able to attend a handful of major league baseball games. I loved watching the game in the big league parks. Say and believe what you want, but those guys are role models. They were then and they are today. I was in awe of the big leaguers. I waited outside the locker rooms hoping to see the players and grab an autograph as they made their way to the parking lot. I wanted to dress like them, walk like them, talk like them and act like them. Don't tell me they did not make an impression on young boys. There were a few who were arrogant and full of themselves. And there were some who did not respect the game, or anyone or anything else. That is a perfect description of Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano. This guy has a problem. Rather, the Cubs and Major League Baseball have a problem. Zambrano is the biggest hothead in the game. Last week, the team suspended him for 30 days without pay for an incident in a game against the Atlanta Braves that led to Zambrano being ejected. He cleared out his locker and left the team, running out on his teammates. A few of them hope he keeps running. He won't be allowed to take part in any team activity during the suspension. It was the strongest penalty the Cubs could enforce without releasing him. Releasing the pitcher would have been the right decision. The Cubs have given Zambrano way too many opportunities to get his act together. This guy has proven he has no class. He has issues, a poor attitude being just one of them. He was on the team's restricted list for six weeks and sent to anger management classes last season after he was involved in a verbal altercation with a teammate. Those classes did a lot of good. In 2009, he was suspended following another tirade. I can understand this happening one time, but Zambrano is over the top. He is bad for baseball. You must expect more out of someone who was given a five-year contract worth $91.5 million. There are many fine young men who are working their butts off hoping for one chance and this jerk is making a mockery of the game. He should be ashamed of himself. Some of his teammates reportedly are. They don't want him around as long as he has this attitude. Then there is Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees. Zambrano could learn a thing or two from the Yankees captain. I was listening the the radio broadcast of the Yankees game with Kansas City a few days after the Zambrano incident. Former Royals great George Brett was talking about Jeter. He recalled something from the previous night's game. Jeter had just hit a triple and there was a pitching change. Brett told the story of Jeter standing at third base talking to Royals rookie infielder Mike Moustakas. During the conversation with Moustakas, Jeter told him to just keep working on his game and that he was going to be a good player in the major leagues. That was classy, and something you might expect from a veteran and future Hall of Fame player. Another thing about Jeter: he lives in New York where the media can be tough. You don't hear very much, if anything, negative about him. Today's Winning Thought: Carlos Zambrano could have added value to people. He chose a different path. Like one teammate said, "He has made his bed, let him sleep in it."