Barrett's Brawl not a total Black Eye

Within an hour of Saturday’s Barrett-Pierzynski brouhaha both my best friend and brother called me to share that they were currently purchasing Barrett jerseys off the Internet. This probably says more about my friends and family, defenders of the indefensible, sophists of the sucker punch, than it does about the valor or cowardice of Michael Barrett. But what I think they are trying to say is the same thing I’ve felt for much of the past three Cubs’ seasons: I need a hero.

Now, according to Bonnie Tyler, a hero has to be strong, fast and fresh from a fight and Kevin Bacon is apparently the epitome of all those things. Barrett, however, is not overly strong (76 career HRs), definitely not fast (9 career SBs), but he is fresh from a fight. With the Cubs posting a 5-17 record so far in May and already more than 10 games out of first, I’ll take anything I can get.

To Barrett’s credit, he said all the right things after the fight. He was appropriately remorseful (“I wish I would’ve pushed him away from me…”), realistic (“…what’s done is done…”), and mindful of the kids (“[they’re] watching and you don’t like for those things to happen…”). But appropriateness aside, I was able to take heart in Barrett’s right hook for one reason: finally it looks like someone is tired of losing.

Every one remembers the Varitek-ARod fracas that spurred the Red Sox in 2004. (If you listen to the hundreds of guys in “Varitek is My Drinking Buddy” shirts passed out around Boston right now, the Red Sox haven’t lost a game since.) I will admit that after seeing the Cubs-Sox fight for the first time, I hoped that this altercation might have the same effect. It was enough to spark a Cubs rally on Sunday, and get them out of The Cell with one win, but they have since dropped two to the woeful Marlins and any hopes of changing the season with one “swing” are ambitious for even the most die-hard, nee optimistic, Cubs fan.

Barrett has been his usual solid self since Saturday going 3 for 11 with two triples, one home run and two RBI. In the past three seasons, Barrett has been as consistent as any Cub on the roster. He put up nearly carbon copy years in 2004 (.287/.337/.489; 32 2B, 16 HR, 65 RBI) and 2005 (.276/.345/.479; 32 2B, 16 HR, 61 RBI), and is on pace to equal or surpass those numbers this year. On a team where every major superstar minus Carlos Zambrano has missed significant time over the past two years, Barrett’s reliability alone makes him one of the Cubs most valuable assets.

But statistics don’t really tell the whole story. If you polled 100 baseball fans as to who is the Cubs’ leader, I doubt you could come up with a concrete answer. Lee is undeniably the best player, but he’s so picture-perfect, glossy-good that his example does most of the talking. Ramirez, Prior and Wood, while brilliant in short-spurts, have all the reliability of members of a slow-pitch softball team, you’re never quite sure who will actually show up for any given game and you might be left pitching your left fielder or playing with three infielders. And while I love Zambrano’s feistiness, every one likes to describe him as “mercurial” which immediately disqualifies any player from team leader consideration. Take away Todd Walker, a consummate ball/role -player, and the rest of the Cubs’ regular line-up is in their first full season with the team.

So that leaves Barrett and his fistful of dynamite. Is any punch on a baseball field ever heroic? Only by some antiquated code of the game. Was the punch unprovoked? Depends on which side of Chicago you support. But one thing seems certain: the action wasn’t heroic, the result could be.

“I’m a grown man, and I take care of things the way I feel they need to be taken care of,” Barrett said after the game. If he can channel that attitude into on-field performance and clubhouse persistence the inevitable week without Barrett might be worth it.

It’s about time. Cubs fans have been living too long on Kyle Farnsworth’s 2003 body-slam of Paul Wilson. We needed some fire, some suspensions, some spunk. For a team so often toothless, even a PR black-eye sometimes has some shine to it.

It might be a long five or six games with Henry Blanco and his current .051 batting average, but those jerseys should be showing up any day now.