Jaime Navarro has apologized for his sermon on the mound, but it might be too late. Fans will forgive him because Navarro pitches for the Cubs, and fans have been forgiving the Cubs for 50 years.
Whether his teammates will forget, that is the problem. They have to play behind him and apparently they just don’t live up to his lofty expectations. Navarro had scolded his fellow Cubs before Saturday night’s shameful episode in Houston, and he probably will do so again.
If it’s not the shortstop, it’s the catcher. If Navarro isn’t upset that he’s not surrounded by Gold Gloves, he’s angry about not pitching for the 1927 Yankees. Navarro is an equal opportunity complainer, which is strange because he has been around only for about a year or so.
Until Navarro started his evaluations from the stretch position, Jack Brickhouse owned the trophy for having watched more bad baseball in a single lifetime. What’s more, Brickhouse had to talk about it. He broadcast the Cubs and White Sox for more than 40 years. That’s a lot of unhappy totals and wait until tomorrows.
The present Cubs management can do that with Navarro, too, but there’s a simpler solution. Find Navarro a ballclub that will please him, and the sooner the better. The Cubs can go nowhere without him, but for sure, they’ll go nowhere with him as the supposed ace of their pitching staff.
Everybody seems to agree Navarro is a good guy, and he can be a good pitcher, too, when he has his mind on his work. So trading him should be easy. Everybody needs good guys and good pitchers. Management should send a message and cut its losses before somebody has the gall to double-dribble another ground ball with him on the mound.
Apparently, Navarro just doesn’t get it. He had nine lives by the Milwaukee Brewers, whom he criticized after he became a free agent. Navarro routinely showed up out of shape, but it was never his fault. Then the Cubs gave him a chance, and now he’s angry at them.
Jim Riggleman, the Cubs’ manager, had every right to get in Navarro’s face Saturday night. They met the next day and everything’s wonderful. Navarro said he hates to lose. He’s a competitor. Fine. Let him compete elsewhere.
Navarro produced a 14-6 record in 1995 at a bargain price, but after signing a multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract his performance has regressed, along with the team’s. At 2-6, Navarro has reason to be frustrated. But pointing fingers and delegating blame is unacceptable behavior.
What next? Do Brian McRae and Mark Grace toss their gloves in the air whenever Navarro gives up another rope? The Cubs haven’t been in a World Series since 1945 and haven’t won one since 1908. Can you imagine what would have happened if Cubs players ripped each other after every error, after every missed cutoff man, after every time they blew a lead?
They would never finish a game. The Cubs would be a debating team instead of a baseball team, which, come to think of it, isn’t all that bad an idea.
There has been many a summer when the Cubs, hopelessly buried in the standings, have branched off on their own in quest of individual statistics. Last season, there was a breath of fresh air in the clubhouse called togetherness, exactly what the latest new regime of President Andy MacPhail and General Manager Ed Lynch advocates.
But Navarro’s tantrums violate everything this rebuilding plan is supposed to represent. Perhaps he should consult his pitching coach, Ferguson Jenkins, who tied a major-league record by losing five 1-0 games in 1968. Jenkins could talk about how he won 20 games that season anyway. If Navarro will listen, that is.
After the 1992 season, speaking of shameful, the Cubs let go of Greg Maddux, who just happens to be in town with his World Series ring. Their pitching staff hasn’t had a leader since, and that includes Jaime Navarro.