After a career of ups and downs with the Cubs, Carlos Zambrano has been traded to Miami, a deal that only materialized after the Marlins were mistakenly lead to believe that the hot-tempered starting pitcher was a member of the White Sox.
The Marlins — who have already hired former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and signed former White Sox ace pitcher Mark Buehrle, felt like they wanted to round out their collection of former White Sox players by picking up Carlos Zambrano, who Cubs brass incorrectly portrayed as a member of the White Sox.
Cubs GM Jed Hoyer is credited for making the deal happen by calling Marlins GM Michael Hill and speaking in an artificially deeper voice, pretending to be Kenny Williams. As soon as the deal was completed, an ecstatic Hoyer dropped the ruse, telling Hill that the Marlins still had to keep Zambrano because of the time honored baseball tradition of “No Givesies backsies.”
By Jeff GoodSmith
