Entries associated with the tag "Carlos Zambrano":

Cook County commissioners briefly refrained from arguing about whether they should be civil to each other (and whether anyone was actually being uncivil, and if so who) and came to a unanimous conclusion Wednesday morning: Carlos Zambrano’s no-hitter Monday was pretty sweet.

So sweet, in fact, that board president Todd Stroger, a south-sider, introduced a resolution honoring the Cubs pitcher that included some of the most eloquent language to flow from the halls of local government since Bill Beavers compared himself to a well-endowed farm animal: “Whereas Chicago Cubs pitcher and Cook County resident Carlos Zambrano is the staff ace for the first place Chicago Cubs. . . . Whereas the switch-hitting Carlos Zambrano has also been a leader with his bat. . .. Whereas on September 14, 2008, Carlos Zambrano took the mound after a 12-day layoff due to injury . . . "

This inspired other commissioners to speak admiringly of Zambrano--and to somehow try to tie his feat to their own political fortunes. Peter Silvestri noted that Zambrano once lived in his northwest suburban district. Larry Suffredin, no doubt happy to talk about something other than his tiebreaking vote to authorize a sales tax increase, recalled seeing the last Cub pitcher to throw a no-hitter, Milt Pappas in 1972. Elizabeth Doody Gorman said the board aims to be fair, reminding everyone that last year they’d honored Mark Buehrle for his no-no.

Of course, this being the county board, not everyone was satisfied with the measure. “If a Cub fan like myself would have been a sponsor of that resolution, we might have had Carlos Zambrano in for a few minutes,” said Joseph Mario Moreno.

At the front of the room, Stroger looked skeptical. “I’m sure he’s busy right now,” he said.

After a couple of weeks of serious bad vibes, Cubs fans have to be feeling pretty good today after Carlos Zambrano's no-hitter last night in Milwaukee. That's the sort of event that seems to anoint a team as blessed--especially when Zambrano performed the feat with 11 days off after many feared he was done for the season with shoulder woes. The return of Rich Harden to win last week in Saint Louis also bodes well for the Cubs should they make the playoffs, and as for now the apparent curse of the Cubs being scheduled to head right into the maelstrom of Hurricane Ike in Houston was turned in their favor as well when their games this weekend with the Astros were rescheduled for Milwaukee's Miller Park -- aka Wrigley Field North for its ready accessibility to Chicago's northern suburbs.

Of the 23,441 in attendance Sunday night, the vast majority appeared to be Cub fans, even though Miller Park would seem to be the second-best place for the Astros to make a stand, given how the Brewers are chasing the Cubs in the National League Central Division. Yet while Zambrano was no-hitting the Astros, the Brew Crew was losing two on the road in Philadelphia to fall seven and a half games back and trim the Cubs' magic number to win the division to seven.

Suddenly, everything seems in the Cubs' favor, and no doubt mathematically it's looking good. Yet don't read too much into Big Z's no-no. Ken Holtzman's no-hitter in August 1969 against the Atlanta Braves seemed to anoint the Cubs as well, but look how that turned out. Same for Hotzman's second no-hitter in 1971, and Milt Pappas's near-perfect no-no in 1972, the last pitched by a Cub. Remember too Mike Scott pitched a division-clinching no-hitter for the same Astros in 1986, but that didn't help get them past the New York Mets in the playoffs. So celebrate Zambrano's achievement, but today is another day, and the rest of the season and the playoffs is still up for grabs. Not to rain on anybody's parade -- not after this weekend's deluge.

Who could have blamed him for taking out the candy basket?

Actually, I'm referring to what Lou Piniella called "the bubble gum thing," the dugout receptacle that holds the chewing gum and sunflower seeds so essential to the Norman Rockwell game that is Major League Baseball. Carlos Zambrano, frustrated by a so-so pitching performance that ended in a 5-3 loss to the Phillies last Friday, had thrown one of his fits and, again to quote Uncle Lou, "flipped [the basket] over a little bit." 

Lou lamented that these days "there are no more water coolers. Now you have to tussle with the Gatorade."

Sullivan elicited from Piniella that, after being forced to cough up $200 to $300 for each smashed water cooler back in the day, he'd taken them home and kept them for a while in his garage--after all, he'd paid for them.

"'I wish I had kept them,' he said. 'I'd be selling them on eBay.'"

Ozzie Guillen better start reading his Bible. He's in danger of losing his title as Chicago baseball's King of Quotes.

What did Carlos Zambrano say after his brutal Labor Day start that required an apology? Nothing, really. Zambrano said simply he didn't "accept" being booed after his poor performance -- including a baserunning boner on offense -- and that "when you're struggling, that's when you want to feel support from the fans." The only place Zambrano really skirted propriety was when he said Cub fans are the best in baseball, but their churlish behavior on Monday showed it was all about them.

Nothing too terrible -- or untrue -- there. Even when Mark Buehrle was scuffling last year for the White Sox, he didn't get booed the way Zambrano was Monday, but then again a World Series championship buys a lot of charity, while the Cubs themselves have been saying for years going back to the Dusty Baker administration that they were trying to shake the image of being lovable losers. So the fans booed Zambrano, he in turn ripped the fans, and when the media made a big deal of it in Tuesday's papers Zambrano -- clearly at the Cubs' urging -- went into damage-control mode. Hey, as Jim Bouton said to his roommate Gary Bell in Ball Four, it's never wrong to say you're sorry, even when you don't mean it -- and perhaps then most of all.