Following the “I’m not going to hussle” debacle by Florida’s Hanley Ramirez, things got ugly for the franchise.

Typical behavior in such a situation is to point the finger somewhere else, which Hanley did in two ways after he was embarrassed by being pulled from the game.  He accused his teammates of not hustling.  And most notably, he delivered some soundbites directed at manager Fredi Gonzalez:

“[Fredi Gonzalez] doesn’t understand that. He never played in the big leagues.”

“[Ramirez lost] A little bit [of respect for Gonzalez]. We got 24 more guys out there. Hopefully they can do the same things I do. They’re wearing the Marlins uniform.’’

“We got a lot of people dogging it after ground balls. They don’t apologize.’’

“I wasn’t trying to give up. That was the hardest I could go after the ball.”

Despite his lack of tact in dishing out his comments, Ramirez’s teammates are prepared to move on from the incident.  They are ready to get the All-Star talent back on the field, where he’s most valuable.

Although the Marlins blanked Arizona last night, 8-0, they knew that they’d need Ramirez’s bat back in the lineup.  It does appear that things will be patched up soon, but it will be a long time before this disharmonic moment will be forgotten.

Ramirez played tonight.  And like a true star, he delivered a 3-5 performance at the plate including a two-out RBI (his 21st of the season).  The three hits pushed his season average up to .303.

I think this may be a turning point in Ramirez’s season.  He will be out to prove that he is the best player on Florida’s roster (which he is).  Hanley will continue to put a lot of physical damage on major league baseballs thrown by opposing pitchers.

We can only see if the organization can recover from the emotional damage of his words.

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