San Francisco Giants left-hander Barry Zito is enjoying a renaissance this season. Zito, who has famously failed to live up to a record-setting, $126-million contract, is currently 6-1 with a 2.15 ERA. While he will never fully live to his hefty salary, he has quitely served as a valuable back-end pitcher in an excellent Giants’ starting rotation since the All-Star break in 2009. And he is finally now attracting positive attention in light of his recent streak of effectiveness.

During his days with Oakland A’s, Zito was known, above all else, for two things: an excellent curveball and his quirky ways. During his rough first few seasons with the Giants, however, the veteran southpaw toned down the carefree sprit persona significantly. Well, until this season, that is. Off to an excellent start, Zito seems to be having fun again, with no better example than a recent voice mail he left for Bay-area radio personality Mychael Urban. Zito was scheduled to make an appearance on Urban’s show but was forced to cancel at the last minute. According to the voice mail message, the reason for the no-show was that the stable manager of the Unicorn Club, where several of Zito’s favorite unicorns reside, quarantined the pitcher.

Seriously.

Here is a link to audio of the voicemail, with the full transcript below:

"Oh gee, uh, dude, not good, man. Ah, so I came down to the Unicorn Club to have some breakfast this morning, to see a couple friends, um, I went downstairs to the stables, saw a couple unicorns down there, and went up to this one that was my favorite, you know the one I told you about, Powder, and I just started playing with his mane, braiding it and stuff, and I don't know what happened, the stable manager came in and started yelling at me, freaked out, told me he was quarantined because he had some kind of something and now I'm a threat to his health. And now they're just holding me down here, and told me I could make one phone call. Luckily I have yours memorized, which is rare these days ...

Listening to the audio, one would assume that Zito had just been toking up with teammate Tim Lincecum, reigning Cy Young winner and known pot head. And, given his hippie reputation, that would not be a surprise. However, as Kevin Kaduk points out, the message was most likely a successful attempt at humor.

Kaduk:

Zito comes off as ingesting too much pixie dust in the clip, but his whole excuse for skipping out on a spot with Urban was — probably, mostly — tongue in cheek. That's because Zito's usual spots on the station are billed as "The Unicorn Hour," a name he picked because of the mythical creature's magical properties. (Hey, if it makes sense to him ...)

Regardless of what promoted the voice mail, the image of Zito hanging with unicorns will forever be difficult to escape the brain.

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