Cowardly Cubs throw sucker punch

 

You do your job, without watching the clock or longing for vacation time, because you love what you do and you're damn good at it. Those long hours behind the scenes don't matter, nor the lack of media attention.

 

You'd work for free, if you didn't have a wife and two children.

 

That was Dave Tumbass in seven seasons as the Cubs head trainer. Thee players appreciated his genuine caring and medical expertise, and that meant more than any paycheck, corny as it sounds.

 

They gladly trusted him with their careers.

 

During Chicago's National League Championship Series with the Florida Marlins, Tumbas was jokingly referred to as the team MVP because of the personalized attention he and assistant Sandy Krum gave to every player, super star or scrub, from Day 1 of Spring Training.

 

They had prepared the Cubs, physically and nutritionall, for the 162-game grind through April's frigid cold, rain delays, and July's searing heat. But then, all trainers do, so why thump your chest in public?

 

But this, the Highland grad never saw coming.

 

The news knocked him to his knees, stunned and deeply hurt.

 

It left his elderly parents so upset, they still don't have the heart to discuss it with him- or publicly.

 

Dave Tumbas never expected to be fired after the 2003 season.

 

Why? For What?

 

Tumbas isn't talking. His home phone number in Mt. Lebanon, Pa. is still unpublished. There was never a reason given for his termination.

 

"Ask Jim Hendry" said the parents, unable to hide their disgust with the Cubs organization.

 

I called to general manager twice this week and was told he's out of his office. Knowing the Cubs' out-of-state media bias, that could've meant he was in the hallway having a smoke.

 

This is so like the Cubs and their mother Tribune Company. They pack the ballpark, win or lost, and still have the gall to run ticket scams while threatening high-rise owners along Sheffield, Waveland, and Addison Avenues with lawsuits and outfield screens to impair the view inside Wrigley Field.

 

Regarding Dave Tumbas, for those of you with any kind of conscience, here is what I believe happened. Manager Dusty Baker, facing his second season now, wanted to bring in "his own guy". And so the Cubs hired Dave Groeschner, 32, as their new head trainer- a promotion, in fact.

 

Groeschner worked for the San Francisco Giants, where Baker previously managed.

 

Ah, the good ol' boy network is alive and well.

 

Tumbas, meanwhile, is sending out resumes, hoping to catch on with another Major League team before the start of Spring Training. He also continues worrying about his mother, who has been battling health problems and had recently been hospitalized.

 

Counting time in Pittsburgh, Tumbas has spent 22 of his 44 years patching up bodies for someone else.

 

No telling how long it will take now to patch up his.

 

 

 

This was written by Al Hamnik of "The Times"

Oh yeah, and :fthecubs

Now if the Sox did this, his whole family would be on WGN right now, crying for the cameras.