Zambrano's Ejection Tantrum One for the Ages
An umpire, a glove, a baseball and the poor Gatorade machine all face Big Z's ire.
By MAGGIE HENDRICKS
Updated 9:34 AM EDT, Thu, May 28, 2009
You have to hand it to Carlos Zambrano. The man does nothing halfway. When he is pitching well, he throws a no-hitter. When he is hitting well, he hits home runs. And when he melts down and yells at an umpire, he gets thrown out, smashes a Gatorade machine, and throws a ball into the stand. (Well, comes close to getting it to the stands.)
We join Big Z in the seventh inning, with the Cubs were up 2-1 when Zambrano threw a wild pitch. Geovany Soto ran to get the ball, while Zambrano covered home as the Pirates' Nyjer Morgan barreled toward home plate. Soto flipped Z the ball, and Z thought he was in time to tag Morgan out. Unfortunately, Z was about a millisecond too late, and the home plate umpire Mark Carlson called Morgan safe, tying up the game.
At that, Zambrano calmly returned to the mound. Wait, no, of course he didn't do that. Zambrano went crazy and yelled at Carlson, causing Carlson to throw him out of the game. Zambrano -- apparently, assuming that he had the authority to throw an umpire out of the game -- did the motion to throw Carlson out of the game. He then bumped into Carlson, which will likely cost Big Z a suspension, which is when Lou Piniella stepped in and sent his ace to the showers.
But Big Z couldn't just head to the showers. First, he tossed the ball towards the bleachers, hitting the warning track. Then, he tossed his glove at the dugout. After that, he took out his frustration on the Cubs new Gatorade machine, clubbing it with a bat.
The Cubs shook off the incident, scoring three times in the eighth inning and pulling out a 5-2 win. But Z's tantrum is what will stand out from this game. Earlier this week, Yahoo! Sports baseball writer Jeff Passan called for Lou Piniella to erupt to light a fire under the struggling Cubs. Apparently, it was Big Z that decided to heed that call.
Maggie Hendricks is a lifelong Chicagoan who has loved sports since she fell in love with Jody Davis at age three. She also writes for Cagewriter, Yahoo! Sports' MMA blog, and Fourth-Place Medal, Yahoo! Sports' Olympic blog.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: May 27, 2009 8:13 PM EDT on NBC Chicago
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