Sports writers aren’t considered among the upper crust of society’s intellectuals. But few have left the yard as spectacularly in recent memory as the Chicago Tribune‘s Steve Rosenbloom in his latest blog entry.
Rosenbloom, for the uninitiated, has made a career out of pushing buttons — think a lower rent, more entertaining Jay Mariotti. He pulls no punches when it comes to athlete performance both on or off the field, but rarely – if ever – has he taken on an athlete for adding to his family. His latest masterpiece takes on the Cubs’ mercurial No. 2 starter Carlos Zambrano, who to be fair, has exhibited more than his fair share of bizarre behavior during his tenure on the north side.
Let me state my own personal opinion here — there is nothing whatsoever about Rosenbloom’s piece that is even remotely defensible. Zambrano has done plenty of things over the course of his career to merit criticism, from fighting teammates to publicly excoriating them in the media to beating the living snot out of an innocent Gatorade machine following a dispute with an umpire. None of which Rosenbloom (specifically) takes issue with here.
Instead, our resident pot-stirrer claims that Zambrano’s performance hasn’t been good enough to justify his off the field behavior, taking issue with him throwing out the first pitch at a Chicago Bandits softball game after suffering a back injury that forced him to leave a game.
Then Rosenbloom officially leaves the yard. Take it away, Steve…
“Now get a load of this: Zambrano plans to fly to Guatemala over the All-Star break to prepare for the adoption of his son. Can you say “utter disrespect,’’ boys and girls?
What’s more, the Cubs have not said they will stop him. Dopes all around, it looks like. Zambrano continues to clown his team the way he clowned his manager with that bat-over-the-knee-episode and the team apparently says, “Thank you, sir, may I have another?’’
So Cub.”
To borrow a line from SNL’s Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler — really Steve? Really? You’re going to criticize a grown man for wanting to expand his family? For wanting to give a child from a third world country a better life? Really Steve? That’s what you’re going to do?
Of all the things that are wrong with professional sports in America these days, a guy making tens of millions of dollars a year taking some time off mid season to expand his family is probably the last thing worth criticizing.
If anything, Zambrano should be applauded for using his considerable wealth to benefit a child that wouldn’t have near as good of a life as it would had the mercurial pitcher decided to invest his own time and emotions. Considering Zambrano has a (well-deserved, depending on who you ask) reputation as being a selfish individual, the very idea of him doing this is something that deserves cheers and not jeers.
Rosenbloom has a job as a veteran sports columnist to call athletes out when they’re in the wrong. And while as sports writers, we’re reticent to call out other writers when they do so, in this case, Rosenbloom left the yard so egregiously that it merits mention in a more public forum.
But let’s put this in to perspective, shall we?
Let’s say hypothetically you were to ask your boss if you could take some time off so that you could travel to a third world country to adopt a child.
You put in a reasonable amount of notice, work with your boss to arrange so that your shift is covered, and tell your coworkers that you’re making a gigantic life step in providing a better life for said child.
There is no way you’d expect any backlash from your boss or your colleagues about that, right? After all, adoption is one of the most noble pursuits a person can possibly engage in. Giving all that you have to make sure a child that isn’t biologically yours has a better life, a chance to become a productive member of society.
You certainly wouldn’t expect a member of the media to pick up on this particular milestone of your life and publicly excoriate you for it, would you? Of course not. And if some local newspaper columnist decided to call the gesture an act of “utter disrepect” in such a public forum, you’d probably take issue with them, no? In fact, the general public would probably label said columnist as a bit of a dick for criticizing a private citizen’s decision to add to his family in such a public forum
This is no different. Zambrano is getting paid millions of dollars to play a kid’s game, and granted he does act like a kid, but here is a man who is standing up and for once, being one. He is investing his time and his money to make sure a child that is not biologically his grows up in a loving home, who has all the things that they otherwise wouldn’t normally have.
Rosenbloom didn’t build his reputation on giving athletes the kid glove treatment and as an established columnist at one of the nation’s most well-read newspapers, he’s got an obligation to his readers and the powers that be to get people talking. As stated earlier, that’s what he does.
But to mock a guy like Zambrano – who to be fair, is not being paid in taxpayer dollars and who’s personal life is about as much your business as mine is – for wanting to add to his family in the middle of a season that will go down as one of the least memorable at the corner of Clark and Addison is to create controversy for the sake of creating controversy.
Take issue with the man for his myriad personality flaws, but applaud him for doing a genuinely good and noble thing.
