Recently Carlos Zambrano joined Clemens, Rodriguez, Ramirez and Jeter in the pantheon of baseball stars being paid more than $18 million per year.

Today, per the official Chicago Cubs Web site, he joined LaTroy Hawkins, Corey Patterson, and Dusty Baker in the community of Chicago Cubs who "know all about how the fans can turn on them."

Zambrano's talent and timing were keys to his admittance to the first club; his selfish, boneheaded play this afternoon, on top of his stunning ineffectiveness for the past five weeks when the Cubs have really needed him to shine, enabled him to join the second club.

This was a terrible loss, made worse by an overly emotional star who needs to learn how to cover his ears and shut his mouth.

Has a baseball player ever demanded a trade within three weeks of signing a $90 million contract with a full no-trade clause?

Maybe Carlos is on his way to becoming the first.