Leave it to fast food for foes to become fast friends.
Maybe they haven’t become best of buddies, but the Cubs’ Carlos Zambrano and the White Sox’s A.J. Pierzynski say they have developed mutual respect after spending a day filming those harmless little McDonald’s commercials.
“He might have bad reputation in the field, but off the field I think he’s cool, man,” Zambrano said. “He talked to me nice and we had a good time.”
“I had a great time with him too,” Pierzynski said. “He was awesome. I have nothing but the utmost respect for him.”
Makes you think Zambrano should have spent that spring day in the studio with his own batterymate, Michael Barrett, whom he punched before Barrett was shipped off to the Padres this week.
Actually, Barrett did shoot White Sox/Cubs McDonald’s commercials, too, although his counterpart was Jermaine Dye. But it was the strange coupling of Zambrano and Pierzynski — where the catcher waxes off the left eyebrow of the sleeping Cubs pitcher — that adds an ironic twist.
Just a year ago, on a Sunday at U.S. Cellular Field, Pierzynski homered off Zambrano, clapping his hands as he rounded the bases. Zambrano yelled, pointed to his head and Pierzynski, after he touched home plate, touched his heart and looked skyward, mocking Zambrano.
It took a while to cool off both sides, the incident coming one day after Barrett slugged Pierzynski in the face.
On Friday, Zambrano will be the pitcher for the Cubs and Pierzynski a Sox batter as the two square off in the first of three more interleague games.
Hard feelings?
“I like guys like him who play this game hard,” Zambrano said. “That’s the way he plays and we have to respect that.”
“That’s competition,” Pierzynski said of the incident. “I don’t have a problem when guys do that. He’s a great pitcher and has been a great pitcher for a long time and that’s what he uses to be great, so I don’t have a problem with that at all.
“You spend a whole day with somebody doing something like that and it definitely changes your perspective of him.”
And now it’s back to reality.
