During an emotional meeting at Wrigley Field, Carlos Zambrano and Michael Barrett ignored the adage that “there’s no crying in baseball.”
After beating the Brewers on Wednesday, Zambrano revealed the two combatants hugged it out and cried Saturday while apologizing to each other for a Friday fight in the dugout that carried into the clubhouse.
“I’m still a friend of Michael Barrett,” Zambrano said. “He still calls me brother, and I still call him brother. We forgave each other and we’re back on track. He will catch me the next time against the Houston Astros on Monday, and I don’t have a problem with that.
“I still love him, and I felt embarrassed the next day when I came to the ballpark because I punched one of my teammates. It was a bad feeling. The next day he came to me and he apologized, and I apologized to him, and we both cried.
“Like he said, it’s like when you have a little brother. You fight with your little brother, but the next day you get along with him. Everything that has happened is in the past. We have to move on. We have a job to do, and we’re here for this team.”
Barrett said the two were emotional because they had been friends for four years.
“We teared up because we’ve played together a long time,” Barrett said. “Whenever you play with a guy that long, it’s tough when you have a situation that occurred like we had.
“But when you play with a guy that long, it’s easier to put it behind you. We both know each other. We both know how passionate we are. We had our differences and we put it behind us.”
Major League Baseball historian and retired Tribune baseball reporter Jerome Holtzman said he expects Barrett and Zambrano to become closer from the incident.
“The guys who fight each other always become best friends afterward,” Holtzman said. “They respect each other more. The Cubs should pair off all the players in twos and get them all to fight each other and charge admission. Every fight I’ve ever seen brings a team together. It shows they care.”
