Cubs Finally Show Some Fight

I am not going to be the only guy to say this, so I’m going to try to be among the first: Carlos Zambrano and Michael Barrett fighting in the dugout during today’s embarrassing loss to the Braves was a GOOD thing for the Cubs.

Despite what the pansies on TV are saying, this fight was a refreshing breeze of emotion on a team of multi-millionaires who usually look too bored to do much more than sit around and cash their checks. Fighting is sports is not a good thing overall, and fighting a teammate is not a good thing overall, but in this instance on this team it was not only good but necessary.

Lou Piniella knows I’m right. Sure, he used the word “unfortunately” more than once in describing Zambrano’s and Barrett’s actions, and he said they will be disciplined. But he has to say that, because parents don’t want their kids who are watching to get the idea that it’s OK. And usually it isn’t, so Piniella has to act like it wasn’t OK this time, either.

Now read between the lines. Piniella “disclosed” at the very beginning of his press conference that the fight spilled over into the clubhouse, with absolutely zero prodding from reporters. Later, after saying you don’t want to see teammates fighting, immediately qualified that statement by saying that you also don’t want to see some of the embarrassing play the Cubs have displayed this year, words that could be taken as a defense of the fight. Piniella – who, if you research his career closely enough, turns out to have also had some blow-ups in his past – was like a proud papa.

The only unfortunate thing might be that Zambrano and Barrett are the only two players on this team who would be likely to be found fighting. Derrek Lee is too laid back; Alfonso Soriano is too busy trying to find his way around left field; Matt Murton is too much of a Boy Scout; Jacque Jones and Aramis Ramirez are surly enough to have short tempers but don’t care enough to blow the fuse on them.

That’s unfortunate because Zambrano and Barrett aren’t having good enough years to make everyone else follow them. If you want to show people how pissed off their fuck-ups are making you, it usually helps your credibility to not be making the same fuck-ups yourself.

If, for example, Lee and Ramirez went after each other with bats in hand, this team would fear for their lives enough to go 80-30 the rest of the way. Even if over-achievers like Murton and Ryan Theriot – well, they wouldn’t and couldn’t get the team’s attention by fighting per se, but if they at least maybe de-pantsed each other on the field the Cubs might claw their way back to .500.

So fight away, boys. Just remember: If you do keep fighting each other and don’t turn around the losing streak in the process, you go from looking good to looking downright silly.