According to a report from the Tribune, the Aramis Ramirez-Carlos Silva incident is closed. Mike Quade addressed his team prior to Thursday’s game then Marlon Byrd and Carlos Pena called a players only meeting … with Quade’s approval.
Quade spoke with the team “about the shoddy defense and the dugout scuffle”. Then Pena and Byrd met with the team and stressed they need to stick together. According to the Tribune, Marlon Byrd did not go into details about the meeting. Byrd did say it was no reflection on Mike Quade.
Marlon Byrd on Mike Quade from the Tribune:
“Just the veterans talking, so we know we’re all on the same page. We have some big dogs on this team now — big-name guys who have been around for a long time.”
“He’s righting the ship, doing exactly what he’s supposed to do. He basically laid the ground rules out. Everybody understands there is nothing else to be said. I mean, you can keep bringing it up, but it means absolutely nothing.”
“Everyone knows what happened. Everyone has had blow-ups at work with people. It happens. We have it out of the way now. We can move forward.”
Mike Quade said he felt he had to address what happened Wednesday quickly before his veterans had a chance to.
“I believe if I hadn’t, some of my veterans would have. But this one was on me. This one I needed to say something, maybe for my own benefit. Maybe I’ll get some sleep tonight.”
“I’m glad people were ticked off. We need to channel that anger at the opposition and within ourselves, and handle it the way we need to handle it. I think we put that to bed. As far as I’m concerned, we did.”
The Cubs consider the incident closed … so it’s time for the players to focus on preparing for the regular season.
Stay Tuned …
