There’s no better way to stifle ill-advised public remarks blasting the paying customers than by getting a crash course in generic sound-byte speak? From the Chicago Tribune’s Fred “Don’t Call Me FredEx” Mitchell (link courtesy Hot Shit College Student) :
Carlos Zambrano may need professional help.
Sue Castorino and Randy Minkoff (left to right, above), the husband-and-wife team who run Chicago-based “The Speaking Specialists,” have offered media training to Cubs players for seven years, but Zambrano has chosen not to take advantage.
Zambrano found himself apologizing Tuesday after blaming Cubs fans for booing him following a poor performance on Monday.
‘We always teach pro and college athletes to take advantage of the ‘cooling off’ period and think about their answers,’ Minkoff said. ‘The No. 1 message that is most confused by the pro athletes we have worked with is that they think at these postgame news conferences or batting-cage talks, their audience is the reporter. It isn’t. It’s the fans, sponsors and in many cases club executives who are reading and listening to what they say.’
One Cubs player who has taken advantage of the training is young reliever Carlos Marmol.
‘Marmol actually fainted, he was so scared during our mock interview,’ Minkoff said. ‘What was impressive was not only did he get up and finish the interview, he came back the next day on his own to get more help. Frankly, Zambrano could use a little of that.’
“The Big Z was probably too dehydrated to speak”, muses HCSC.