Buried in the rubble that was the incredible day of baseball Wednesday was that Marlins' closer Heath Bell blew yet another save. And this time, it cost the (formerly?) mercurial Carlos Zambrano a victory. And Big Z wasted no time after the Marlins' extra-innings win in telling reporters how he's a new man.
“I feel like I’m a new Carlos Zambrano,” he said (miamiherald.com), “because the old Carlos Zambrano would be throwing a chair and screaming at his teammate. But God has changed my life. I’m happy that we won today. That’s the most important thing.”
He followed that up with some talking points about how a team works.
Now, this is a tough one. Color me skeptical on him being a completely different person. He's laid down too much framework on being a ticking time bomb to believe that one example of him acting like any respectable teammate should is some big revelation.
You're happy your team won, Carlos? Good for you!
Just because he didn't act like a complete nutcase, we're supposed to be all excited.
On the other hand, what if Zambrano really is starting to finally grow up? Everyone deserves the chance to prove he's changed, so I'll hold off on going overboard.
Wednesday night was just one step in Zambrano proving he's changed, but it was a good step. We have to grant him that. For now.