This version of Zambrano just the ticket
Carlos Zambrano said he would answer a lot of questions Sunday night.
He did.
Namely, the one about his health, and clearly there's nothing wrong with Carlos Zambrano.
Nothing at all.
Just as it was suggested here 10 days ago, there was nothing physically wrong with Zambrano when he suddenly left a game Sept. 2.
At the very least, his extraordinary no-hitter Sunday night in Milwaukee against the Astros proved that he was as healthy on Sept. 2 when he stormed out of Wrigley Field as he was Sunday night and any other night this season.
In the process of it all, of the skipped MRI and everything else, he embarrassed half the organization as he left team officials, trainers, doctors and manager Lou Piniella without any reasonable way to explain the way Zambrano removed himself from that game.
Cubs officials knew this was the answer, that Zambrano was fine, even if they protected him and couldn't say it.
Zambrano said postgame Sunday night that it was the extra rest that gave him this burst, but he had extra rest before that Sept. 2 start and was throwing as hard in the fifth inning that night as he was in the first, and just as hard as he was throwing Sunday night.
Had there truly been an injury Zambrano was protecting when he walked out that night, he would not have been able to come back 12 days later and throw 110 pitches, many of them at nearly 100 mph.
That wouldn't be the stuff of rest, folks. That would be a miracle.
However, as he celebrates a no-hitter, everyone will forgive and most will forget the extra pressure he put on a club that was already feeling the effects of a long season and overwhelming fan expectations.
No, the Cubs weren't choking, another absurd notion that was put to rest Sunday.
They were mentally fatigued.
In order to choke, they'd have to be giving away a huge lead to an inferior team, but if you've watched any baseball the last couple of years, then you knew Milwaukee was incapable of catching the Cubs.
How's that idea looking now that the Cubs have extended the lead to 7 games?
No, the Cubs weren't choking.
The prediction here many months ago was that the Cubs would win by at least 10 games, and that this will hardly be a contest.
And it's not.
The Brewers may not even win the wild card the way they're going, and this week's series at Wrigley Field seems almost anticlimactic.
How perfect was it, though, that Zambrano's brilliant performance occurred Sunday night on the Brewers' home field?
It was almost poetic the way he stuck it to Milwaukee with the Brewers coughing up a doubleheader in Philadelphia.
And it was almost predictable.
If no hitters weren't so difficult to accomplish, you could have looked at this game and guessed it would be a non-effort by Houston, and that if Zambrano was ever going to toss a no-no, this might be the night.
Forced to leave their homes Sunday morning in the midst of one of the worst natural disasters in this country's history, the Astros - who had been the hottest team in the game before the two-day break - had little resistance to offer Zambrano.
On top of that the Cubs were playing a home game in front of fans rarely given the chance to buy tickets.
So they stood and roared with every strike Zambrano threw, energizing the club and Zambrano with constant and consistent rousing ovations.
It was a night to remember, for many reasons.
Consider the break the Cubs got from Hurricane Ike, which took home games away from a Houston team that had won 14 out of 15 and robbed the Astros of their momentum.
And that time away also seemed to rejuvenate some Cubs who had been struggling.
It's funny that those calling the Cubs chokers and insisting there was panic in the air will talk now instead of how the Cubs are headed for the World Series.
Well, they ought to be catching on to that idea because it's a league that still features no team that can match the Cubs player for player and pitcher for pitcher.
Especially, if Carlos Zambrano pitches the way he's capable of pitching.
All he's got to remember is to stay on the mound.