Bleeding Black and Blue

The fight yesterday was the result of actions earlier in the week. If you recall, the Cubs held a closed door meeting back on May 31st. Why did they have it? A source tells me that it was due to this quote:

Barrett said he didn't bear down, and it cost him dearly.

"I feel like, starting with me, I have to play smarter," he said. "It's one thing to play harder, but it's not an excuse to play dumber. The all-out rule for me right now is we have to play smarter baseball."

It seems that a lot of the players in the Cubs clubhouse were miffed that Barrett said that the team was playing dumb.

That's actually the only smart thing Barrett has done in his tenure as a Cub.

What you say from Zambrano was the reaction of an immature hot head to the first brain fart from Barrett after Barrett called out the whole team. You know a lot of guys in that dugout were pissed that Barrett had another mental collapse after calling them out. Z just got to him first.

Why didn't Z go after Matt Murton for his boner earlier? Why not go after himself for his bad ptiching? Easy. They didn't discuss the team's stupid play publicly. Shades of Kent Mercker, no?

There's a lot of stench on this team left from Dusty Baker. It's going to take years to clean up. While 2007 is lost already, at least there is hope on the horizon. The brain trust of this franchise will be dismissed as soon as the sale is complete.

The thing we fans have to hope for the rest of this year is that Jim Hendry doesn't screw things up going forward more than he has screwed up the present.