While very little was said on this site, quite a bit was said about my Zambrano post from yesterday morning and, more particularly, other similar comments that I made later in the day over at LOHO.
While I look back on it and feel that I was indeed too harsh in my criticism of Zambrano, I don’t back away from the general premise of what I said…or at least what I was trying to get across.
I am not criticizing Zambrano for wanting to retire in 2 years to spend time with his family. Hell, I’d love to retire right now and spend more time with my family. I would never criticize anyone for doing that, and if I mistakenly did that with Zambrano yesterday, I apologize. It was wrong for me go to that level about it. That makes me as bad as some of the columnist and reporters that I have critiqued over the last year in this blog.
But, I did intend criticism on Zambrano…and to that, no one, even I, cannot deny.
First, I’m criticizing him for playing the media to gain sympathy. In my opinion, what he what he said on Wednesday was not for his family. It was for him, plain and simple. Even with his very good resurgence over the last 6 weeks, a lot of fans don’t particularly like him. Z wants to be loved. He has a desperate need to be loved. Is he as bad as someone like Sammy Sosa was? No. His comments came across, to me, as an attempt to gain the sympathy of others. I might be way, way off here. But, based on his behavior in the past, this was the impression that I got.
Second, I’m criticizing him for being a lazy bastard. No one can deny that when he is on the ball field, he competes as hard as anyone. Off the field, he has, self admittedly, been a bum. In the end, for me, when someone says the he doesn’t want to play anymore after underperforming for years and admitting that he hasn’t put in substantial effort to perform at a level that he’s been paid to perform at, that person can give whatever excuse he wants for leaving, but I’m going to see it only one way, that he has lost the will to put in the hard work to be the best he can be at the job. Again, I might be way off here, but based on what Zambrano has said and done in the past, I feel justified this judgment.
In Z’s comments…not once did he say that he was going to work his ass off over the next two years before he retired. He said that he was just going to try to have fun. I’m not sure what else I’m supposed to think from that.
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So, I’ve been called a number of things over the last couple days. I’m somewhat surprised that no one really said it to my ‘face’ at this site…be no one reads this blog anyway. I can deal with that. And now I have posted a response to the criticism that I have received, and in so doing, I have invited a number of people to come over here and to seriously abuse me through comments. I can deal with that too. If anyone does want to give rebuttal, please forgive me for not responding during the weekend, as I will not be, like most weekends, at my computer again until early Monday morning. It is what it is.
This is the first time I’ve have been directly involved in a cross-blog battle. In truth, the other bloggers have called me out and have had their say and in reading what I wrote here and at LOHO, I accept the fact that I have left myself open to significant criticism.
I don’t write this blog to be controversial. I, for the most part, don’t openly try to promote it. In fact, one of the main reasons I write this blog is for selfish reasons…for my own mental health, as an outlet. I’ll admit that I’ve posted some pretty stupid stuff. In fact, most of the stuff I post here is probably completely pointless. Tons of other blogs exist out there that do a much better job at reporting things than I do and I respect most of the bloggers out there (not including Al Yellon) and will still recommend to the 3 people who read this blog to continue to visit these other blogs, even after some of the name calling I have understandably endured over the last day.
I try never to let ego get in the way here, and I will try my damnedest to keep it that way. What this blog is, for the most part, is a stream of my thoughts (often times, unfortunately, uncensored). And right now, my thoughts about Carlos Zambrano have nothing to do with his family. My thoughts have to do with his pitching. I challenge him to prove me wrong over his remaining 2 years.
