Carlos Zambrano, June 5, 2009 : “Because I don’t want to play,” he said. “I want to help this team. I want to do everything possible to win with this team. And after five years, four years, or whatever is left on my contract. … “You know how many Mother’s Days I haven’t spent with my mother? Twelve. You know how many things I’ve been [missing] in my life? It’s good to be here, it’s good to play baseball. But in five years. … I will retire. And I won’t have to see you anymore.” Carlos Zambrano, Sept. 27, 2009 : “It’s been a disappointing season,” he replied. “People say, ‘Why can’t you pitch like that all the time?’ It’s not all the time I feel like that.” “Look, this is the only season I haven’t won 16 or 18 or 14 games,” he said. “If it happens again next season, two seasons in a row, I’ll quit. Believe me, I’ll quit. I just have to put this behind me. The context of both these quotes adds a lot: the first came shortly after his suspension earlier this season, while the second came after a great Zambrano start on Friday night, near the end of what has been a disappointing season for him, and for the Cubs. So you take both the scenarios into consideration here, and you wonder if Zambrano — a guy who’s been known to fly off the handle here and there — is just venting frustration, if he’s just exaggerating a bit. That’s likely what it is. Yet, there’s a bit of a pattern here, one that suggests if the game isn’t good to him, he’s going to bow out while he still has his wits about him. Tune in at the end of next season.

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Carlos Zambrano Talks Retirement … Again