Chicago Cubs Baseball

There’s nothing like a good clubhouse meeting to clear the air and well, clear the clubhouse. It wasn’t but a mere 11 days ago when a fact-finding, players-only meeting was called at the behest of Chicago Cubs baseball manager Lou Piniella.

The topic: clubhouse dissension.

Without pretending to play God, Chris Angel or Major League umpire Jim Wolf, yesterday’s demotion of Matt Murton seemed more concocted than coincidental.

Sure, the Cubs bullpen was tired, taxed and in need of a fresh arm following a week that included Wolf’s mind-reading folly and a parade of close games. The call-up of Clay Rapada gave Chicago that emergency arm and at the same time an opportunity to lessen the clubhouse calamity.

Call it a two-for-one sale. The Cubs get a chance to see if Rapada can produce and at the same time move a culprit.

To Piniella’s credit, his message has been consistent throughout: More clout, less commotion.

Evidently, Murton must have missed that memo. According to a Chicago Sun-Times story, team captain Derrek Lee reported back to Piniella that some players addressed their lack of playing time in the meeting.

Count Murton as one of those. At least that’s what his comments would lead one to believe. Speaking to reporters, Murton repeatedly referred to “”100 broken-up at-bats over two months,” in discussing his .252 batting average, but obviously referring to his lack of playing time.

Then there was the gem, “You just go out there and continue to play and continue to work and know that because of your ability, there’ll be plenty of opportunities in the future, wherever that might be,” Murton said.

Whether his comment could be construed as a veiled request for a trade, or maybe simply a resignation of the inevitable, the truth is Murton was just another of the second fiddles in the merry band of banjo-hitting right fielders. Besides hitting an average average, Murton has drove in exactly eight runs with one homer.

Hardly the stuff you’d expect from a starter. And while on the topic of missed messages, here’s a couple more that are unlikely to reach Murton’s mind whether from this blog or from anyone else:

Memo to Matt #1: Just because your initials are MM doesn’t make you Micky Mantle. An average arm on an average outfielder with an average batting average merely makes you one of a few hundred outfielders out there with the same credentials.

Memo to Matt #2: It’s not the number of chances you get in life. It’s what you do with them when they arrive.

So Matt, you asked for more at bats - and now you have them - in Des Moines.  It’s 306 miles from Des Moines to Chicago, but I’m guessing it’s looking like a heckuva lot farther than that now.