There Is Crying In Baseball

And so much heartache. Just ask the Cardinals' Juan "Emo" Encarnacion, crying into his glove over team manager Tommy La Russa's public snubbing and drubbing of him:

"You've got to play whoever is doing the job," [Juan] Encarnacion said. "I'm not upset about that situation. I'm more mad about [the fact that] I didn't even know what was going on before that happened. Players should know a lot of things that happen before you know, everybody knows about it.
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In a story in Sunday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch, [Tommy] La Russa pointed to some of Encarnacion's shortcomings, saying that "there are parts of the game he can play better." Encarnacion was disappointed that La Russa made the comment publicly rather than in private.

"It hurts my feelings when your manager says you don't give the effort to play," Encarnacion said. "I was giving the best effort I can do. That's not making me feel good. He hurt my feelings about that situation.

Words can wound as badly as any weapon and destroy the self-esteem of sensitive hearts. That's probably why Juan skipped the victory parades for both the Marlins and the Cards: he felt too undeserving.