Wednesday, May 27, 2009

LEADING THE LEAGUE

They say a team takes on the personality of their manager. It must be true in the case of the Chicago Cubs. Lou Piniella certainly has the most entertaining arguments since Earl Weaver, and his players are following right along.

Last week, Milton Bradley, (a board game in his own right) was ejected for arguing too vehemently over a called strike three. Since Milton suffers from Umpire Paranoia, this was to be expected. Now Ted Lilly has been tossed for the same reason. Today, Carlos Zambrano bit the dust over a called play at home. At least this ejection was reasonable, since Zambrano clearly bumped the umpire while arguing. But in the manner of Sweet Lou, Carlos then threw the ball into left field, slammed his glove into fence and knocked over a drink cooler on his way out. It's called "getting your money's worth."

The bad one was Lilly's ouster. He was arguing plate umpire Bob Davidson's, calls of balls and strikes from the dugout. According to Davidson, when Lilly said "he was embarrassing himself out there," that's when he gave him the heave-ho. Wow! What a terrible thing to say. If Davidson wasn't embarrassing himself before, this would certainly qualify. Next thing you know, the umps will be tossing players for wearing the wrong after-shave. Lilly then hopped the dugout fence and went after Davidson, but was restrained. Piniella said they had the gates guarded, but "our barrier defense was lacking."

Chicago is a fun place.

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