OOOOOH This Makes My Blood Boil

Last night Hanley Ramirez was removed from the Marlins-Diamondbacks game by Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez for not hustling on a defensive play.

Here is what Ramiriz said after hearing he was benched for not hustling, grrrrrr

Do you plan to apologize to the team?
“To who?”
One of your teammates suggested an apology might be good if you did that.
“Do what?”
Apologize.
“For what?”
They thought that you were dogging it chasing that ball.
“We got a lot of people dogging it after ground balls. They don’t apologize"



As the Marlins have a day game today, Ramirez addressed the media about the incident Tuesday morning:

"It’s his (Manager Fredi Gonzalez) team. He does whatever he (expletive) wants. There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s brutal. That’s OK. He (Gonzalez) doesn’t understand that (playing hurt). He never played in the big leagues.”

Gonzalez responded to Ramirez’s comment about him not understanding the situation because he never played in the big leagues.
“He’s right. But I know how to play the game. I played six years in the minor leagues and I know what it takes to play this game and I know the effort it takes to play this game and I know it’s hard to play this game. That’s it.

Gonzalez, according to Marlins reporter Joe Capozzi and Clark Spencer will not put Ramirez back in the lineup until the shortstop apologizes for his comments this morning.

Case you’re wondering, it appears the entire organization, from Ramirez’s teammates to owner Jeffery Loria, are firmly in Fredi’s corner.

Capozzi has this from “clubhouse leader” Wes Helms on Ramirez:

To just flat-out not hustle, that’s one of the things, I can’t cope with that. That’s one of my pet peeves. I can’t stand two things in baseball: Guys who don’t hustle and guys who don’t work. We’re trying to go to the World Series here. We’ve got to have all 25 guys on the same path. “I can’t overlook it. I know people say that’s just the way he is. But you know what? That’s not the way it is. That’s not the way the game’s supposed to be played. And that’s what we want from Hanley.

“We want him to be that guy that goes out there everyday and we can sit back and says that‘s who he is – he’s the one who goes out there everyday and busts his butt and does anything he can for this team. That right there will earn the respect of not only his teammates but everybody in the league.”