Ugly Day at Wrigley. Real Ugly.

The wife and I went to the game yesterday, leaving the boy with a sitter and hoping to enjoy the first place Cubs and Carlos Zambrano pitching. Things did not go well on the field, and I told the wife as it was imploding that the fans would be booing Carlos and that it would be ugly.

Unfortunately, I was right. From The Tribune:

"I don't accept that the fans were booing at me," a seething Zambrano said afterward. "I can't understand that. You know, I thought these were the greatest fans in baseball. But they showed me today that they just care about them, and that's not fair, because when you're struggling, you want to feel the support of the fans."No, I don't accept it. I just pointed to my head, and I will remember that because I don't want any bad outings. I know the great moments of my career will come."

"[Fans] pay to see a good show," he said. "They pay to see a good pitcher. Right now, I'm not doing too well. I just call [out to] the fans, 'I want a little support.' That's all. When you're struggling, or you have a brother who's struggling, you show him love. You don't show him you want to kick him out. That's what I ask of the fans—a little support." And not only [for] me. I go out there and try to do my best, but not everybody is like Carlos Zambrano [and can] keep his head up and keep trying to do a good job. There are people on this team who are struggling and going down and down …"When you're booing somebody, you're booing the 25 men on this ballclub, and that's not fair. That happened before to some of my teammates, and that's not right. I think we go out there to give Cubs fans a good show and to go to the playoffs, and that's what I want. No one wants to do a bad job. … Every single player in that clubhouse wants to do a great job for the city, believe me."

I tend to agree with the sentiment about booing the home team, and I truly don't doubt his wanting to do well and working hard, but it was real dumb for Zambrano to express it in that situation. As it stands, he will likely have only one more start at Wrigley. Let's just hope that we make the payoffs, and we can make the day just a blip on the radar. Wishful thinking, huh?

Also, why does Joe West make himself part of every game he is in?