CHICAGO -- What started out as a season of high hopes for Lou Piniella's return to baseball has already reached a low point, after he believed it couldn't get any lower.
Friday's dugout/clubhouse fight between pitcher Carlos Zambrano and catcher Michael Barrett left the manager with the answer to his question of how things could get worse than the way his veteran team had been playing.
"You don't want to see people fight one another on your own team," Piniella said. "And at the same time you don't want to see some of the silliness that's going on on the field.
"I only have so many players I can play and it's about time some of them started playing like major-leaguers. Or get somebody else in here who can catch the ball or run the bases properly."
Piniella's voice grew angrier as he talked, his frustration obviously building.
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That's the way Piniella ended his postgame conference after Friday's 8-5 loss to the Braves.
Earlier he had been asked if his team appeared "unorganized."
"Unorganized?" he echoed. "We're not doing smart things on the field. I don't know how to respond to your question. Unorganized? We're not doing things we should. ...
"We've talked about the things that make us look silly sometimes. ... I know what I would do, but we'll leave it at that."
