Zambrano says he knows what he'd probably be doing if he wasn't a Major League pitcher.

"I'd be a truck driver," he says. "My Dad was a truck driver for 30 years, and two of my brothers used to do it too. Basically that's our family job."

Carlos says he is a big soccer fan. And he loved playing it as a youth.

"Soccer is the sport that I most enjoy," Zambrano said. "It's in my blood. Baseball is a compementary talent that God chose me to have more than soccer. But I would have loved had god given me more soccer talent to play the sport."

Zambrano dropped 15 pounds before 2004 spring training. He was on a diet that had him eating cottage cheese and broccoli—items he came to disdain.

Carlos is one of the edgiest, most charismatic, and most excitable pitchers the game has seen since the days of Luis Tiant and Mark "the Bird" Fidrych. Some baseball people don't like that he gets emotional so often, but his excitement is also a reflection of the passion Zambrano has for the game.

In 2006 spring training, then-Cubs manager Dusty Baker said, ''[His emotional energy] is his best friend, and it also could be his nemesis.'It's destructive—not only to him, but at some wrong time to a teammate or two. He has to address it without losing his competitiveness."

Carlos and his family are passionate about their religious beliefs.

"God is great," he says. "I've got Him in my life. With Him, you can do anything.

Zambrano takes a moment before every game he plays in to pray. "All the time before I go to pitch, I go to one knee and pray to God to save me," Zambrano said Saturday. "I don't pray to win the game, but to save me from injury."

Zambrano combines immense talent with a limitless capacity for distraction. On the mound he bellows to himself, to opponents, to teammates, to God and occasionally to umpires. But he bristles when anyone assumes he is spewing profanity.

"Some of my friends ask, 'Are you out there saying bad words?' I say no. I never say bad words."

He finishes every inning by taking off his cap a few steps before the dugout and pointing to the sky, thanking God.

"The power of my pitches comes from God," Carlos says.


AMBIDEXTROUS

To save his right arm, Zambrano throws lefthanded while he shags fly balls during batting practice, easily reaching the screen behind second base from the outfield wall.

If you put a glove on his right hand and then watched him throw, you'd think he was lefthanded. He says he can throw 80 mph lefthanded.

He is also a switch hitter.

When Carlos was asked what he would be doing if he weren't playing Major League baseball, he said, "I would like to be an architect—to design buildings."

During the offseason, Carlos likes to jet ski and go fishing.

In 2006 and 2007, he drove a Hummer H2 SUT.


FAVORITES

In his CD player you will find Christian music.

His favorite food is rice, beans, and meat.

Favorite actor and actress: Jim Carrey and Eva Mendes.

Person he'd most like to meet: Jesus Christ.

Players, past and present, that he'd pay to watch: Babe Ruth in the past; Dontrelle Willis in the present.

Zambrano is part owner of a Venezuelan baseball team, the Puerto Cabello Toros.

Zambrano got in a fight with his catcher, Michael Barrett in the Cubs dugout, then the clubhouse. Barrett had a cut on his lower lip that required six stitches at a hospital and a bruise below his left eye. Zambrano had come out of the game after giving up five runs in the fifth inning to the Atlanta Braves, including one on a combination passed ball and throwing error by Barrett. Zambrano approached Barrett, pointed to his head, and said, "What were you thinking?"

Barrett then pointed toward left field and apologized for the error he made, which was throwing the ball wildly to third base. The ball went into left field.

Zambrano, an emotional player, then shoved Barrett, and the two had to be separated. Zambrano was escorted into the clubhouse, told to shower, and go home. Barrett was supposed to stay in the game, but went into the clubhouse because he wanted to talk to the pitcher. A fight ensued, and Barrett ended up with a shiner under his left eye and six stitches in his lip.

Barrett compared the incident to a fight with a sibling.

"We're close," Barrett said. "We had our differences that day. Now we're on the same page, and we can go get 'em." (Carrie Muskat-MLB.com-6/04/07)

After Carlos's one-sided fracas with teammate Michael Barrett, Zambrano said, "I don't like to fight. I've practiced boxing since I was 12. I have gloves in my house. I like to practice boxing, but I don't like the fighting."

Zambrano's first book is about his life growing up in Venezuela and how he came to be a Major League star. But the main theme is his spirituality.

"The main concern," Carlos said, "was to show people how good God is and how faithful God is. It's all about him. He's the one who kept me here; He's the one who brought me here. He's everything for me."

Carlos was advised in 2008 to drastically reduce his caffeine intake.  He was previously drinking lots of coffee and energy drinks.  He indicated that he now drinks those drinks "under the table."

Zambrano said he had three different cars (during the 2008 season).

"I have a Lamborghini, a Cadillac Escalade, and a Mercedes-Benz," Carlos said.

September 14, 2008: Carlos tossed a no-hitter for the Cubs, beating the Astros 5-0 while striking out 10 in a game played at Miller Park in Milwaukee because of Hurricane Ike that hit Houston the day before.

Zambrano did it in front of a very pro-Cubs crowd of 23,441 at Miller Park. It was the first no-no by a Cubs pitcher in 36 years—since Milt Pappas threw one on September 2, 1972 in an 8-0 win over San Diego. And it was the 9th no-hitter by a Cub since 1900.

May 28, 2009: MLB suspended Zambrano six games and fined him $3,000 for his “inappropriate and violent” actions in Wednesday’s game against the Pirates. Zambrano was ejected for arguing with plate umpire Mark Carlson.

The two men made contact, which the Cubs maintain Carlson initiated. However, Zambrano engaged in histrionics after the ejection. He pretended to throw Carlson out of the game. He threw the ball into left-center field before flinging his glove to the dugout fence. He finished by taking a bat to the Gatorade fountain in the dugout.

Midway through the 2009 season, Carlos said, "Yeah, after this contract, I'll be done with baseball. I just want to go home, relax, go to church and dedicate more time to God and what He has planned for me.

"And, of course, spend more time with my daughters and my family," Zambrano, who is signed through 2012, said. (He also has a vesting option for 2013.)

June 25, 2010: Zambrano went ballistic against his Cubs' teammates, especially first baseman Derek Lee, after a rather rough first inning vs. the White Sox, and was suspended indefinitely by manager Lou Piniella.

Then, on July 29, he was placed on the restricted list to get treatment for anger issues, something coordinated by the Cubs, Major League Baseball, the Players Association and the pitcher's agent following his dugout tirade.

February 2011: Carlos and his wife, Ismary, adopted an 18-month-old boy from a Guatemala orphanage.

July 10, 2011: Zambrano flew to Guatemala to complete the visa for their son, also named Carlos. The boy was to be in the U.S. by or before early in August. They already have three daughters.

"When I told my wife at the beginning and started to talk about this," he said, "I said to her, 'If we want to adopt a kid, he has to be special, there has to be something that tells us he's the one, he's the kid.' Things happen. We found out this was the kid God had in mind for us."

His wife, Ismary, has already decorated a room in their home in blue with a wallpaper border with baseball, soccer and football stickers.

August 12, 2011: Zambrano was ejected  after throwing two consecutive fastballs that nearly hit Chipper Jones in the fifth inning of a Braves 10-4 win over the Cubs. Zambrano cleared out his locker when he returned to the clubhouse and gave the Cubs a message that he planned to retire. Before the next day's game, they placed him on the disqualified list. He can have no contact with the club for 30 days and will not be paid during that period.

"His actions (August 12) are totally intolerable," general manager Jim Hendry said. "In dealing with the hierarchy at MLB today, this was really the most stringent penalty that our club could enforce without a release."

September 26, 2011: Zambrano  placed one of his two Chicago-area homes on the market for $969,000. A 13-room home in suburban River Forest, Ill., Zambrano originally purchased the property in 2006 for $1.199 million. The property has four full baths, a loft, a finished lower level with a large recreation room, a three-car garage and a sunken great room with a wall of windows and a vaulted ceiling.

 Carlos pitched for Venezuela in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

January 25, 2014: Zambrano was involved in a brawl during Venezuela's winter league series final. It was during the third game of the series. Zambrano struck pitcher Mayckol Guiape of the rival Caribes de Anzoategui after teammate Ezequiel Carrera of the Navegantes del Magallanes had been hit by a pitch.

Zambrano asked forgiveness of Venezuelans and the Caribes organization for the "very embarrassing incident." The Venezuelan League of Professional Baseball is investigating.

 
TRANSACTIONS

1997: The Cubs signed Carlos as a free agent, out of Venezuela.

February 11, 2006: Zambrano and the Cubs avoided arbitration when they agreed on a one-year, $6.5  million deal. Carlos had asked for a raise to $7.2 million in arbitration. The Cubs offered $6 million.

August 2007: Zambrano and the Cubs agreed to a five-year, $91.5 million deal, which included a full no-trade clause.

January 4, 2012: The Marlins sent RHP Chris Volstad to the Cubs, acquiring Zambrano and $15 million of the $18 million owed Carlos in 2012. Carlos also had a $19 million vesting option for 2013 if he finished in the top four in Cy Young Award voting, but he waived that and will receive a $100,000 bonus if he is voted the comeback player of the year.

Zambrano also waived his no-trade clause, and the deal hinged on the Cubs agreeing to pay back $2.4 million of the $3 million Zambrano lost when he was put on the disqualifaction list for leaving Atlanta's Turner Field—and saying he was retiring—on August 12, 2011, the source said.

May 15, 2013: Carlos signed a minor league contract with the Phillies.

July 25, 2013: The Phillies released Zambrano.

"He's not frustrated by the umpires," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. "He's talking to himself. I have to explain that to the umpires all the time. "He talks to himself even when he's by himself."

Zambrano said he toned down the mound theatrics some when the 2003 post-season started. "This is not a game for a baby. This is a game for a man," he said.

Zambrano's only allowance to immaturity is that he talks to himself on the mound, sometimes in English but mostly in the Spanish he learned while growing up in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela.

Cubs manager Dusty Baker tells Carlos to be himself and blow off steam if he needs to, on the field.

''Everyone made an issue out of it, but that's his personality,'' Baker said. ''I'm not here to change a guy's personality.''

His emotionally charged personality and penchant for doing the unexpected may be two of the factors in his success.

In a game at Wrigley Field in July 2004, Zambrano screamed at Cardinals' outfielder Jim Edmonds, who was rounding third base, because he allegedly had watched a home run sail onto Sheffield Avenue. Zambrano later was ejected for throwing at Edmonds. Zambrano eventually was suspended for five games but steadfastly refused to admit he was in the wrong.

Carlos moves the ball all over the place. Hitters have to make him throw strikes.

While Zambrano realizes his celebrations sometimes grate on opposing players and umpires, he also knows they have helped him become one of the most popular young stars on the Chicago sports scene. For better or worse, his behavior sparks conversation.

"That's something the people always talk about," he says. "But that's just part of the game."

On April 20, 2010, the Cubs moved Zambrano, who was struggling as a starter (7.45 ERA in 4 starts) to the bullpen in a setup role (8th inning). But he was back in the starting rotation not too long after.

In his final 10 starts, Carlos went 8-0 with a 1.41 ERA.