Tension Brewing Between Hanley and Uggla?

[Namaste]

It is clearly evident to me that at the end of the day, Hanley is the root cause of this friction whether it be intentional on his part or unintentional (immaturity).


When more than 2 of your teamates has had a serious issue with you in one season then you are the problem.


If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it's probably a duck.

[Madman81]

"Like my boy tells me: If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat."

[m26555]

ehe, I do. Remember how everyone made fun of him, and then he hit 6 homers with 26 rbi's (and 10 straight games with an rbi) over the next two and a half weeks?

I don't recall anyone bringing that comment while he was tearing shit up.

A fucking baby because of a few comments/incidents?

What does his production have anything to do with what he said?

And you say "few comments/incidents" like what he has done has just been minor shit. I guess wearing a t-shirt asking for a trade because the organization asked you to cut your hair isn't being a pissy baby?

Face it; Hanley is A LOT of growing up to do.

And as I wrote this, Hanley just tied the game. Beautiful.

[Fish and Chips]

also i think that the media doesnt covered, reported, or see half the fights in the clubhouse, so 3 public confrontations means there was atleast 2 private ones.

/not base on any knowledge, mostly infering

[THE_REAL_MIBS]

There was conversational chum in the water at Land Shark Stadium Thursday afternoon, but none of the Florida Marlins were biting, least of all Hanley Ramirez, whose relationship with teammates is at the root of the first loud and public clubhouse confrontation anybody around here can remember.

Got a minute, Hanley, since you're not in the lineup tonight for the second straight game? Can you take a few questions, Hanley? Will you maybe take those headphones off, Hanley, just for a second?

One by one, reporters made their brief and fruitless pitches to the face of the Florida Marlins, and one after another saw that face turn to stone, with Hanley's head shaking out a slow and negative response to any and all interview requests, his eyes barely straying from a presentation of Scarface on the laptop perched at his corner locker.

It's not always like this. Ramirez usually has an obligatory moment or two to review the ups and downs of every Marlins game.

What everyone wanted to know about this evening, however, was the raised-voice rhubarb that took place one day earlier, with Dan Uggla, a two-time All-Star, accusing Hanley of abusing his big-money contract by not giving a full payout of effort to a Florida team still on the fringes of a playoff race.

As you might expect, everyone worked this evening to stamp out the angry ember of clubhouse resentment, a problem that surely didn't just start with Ramirez removing himself from the lineup with a tight hamstring midway through Tuesday night's rain-delayed game.

Everyone, that is, except Hanley, the moody superstar with a pattern of ticking off teammates.

"It's over and behind us," Uggla said Thursday. "I'm a firm believer that when you do things like that, get it out in the open and you become closer."

Would it have killed Ramirez to say the same, even if he was just going through the motions? He'll be here long after Uggla, the arbitration-eligible second baseman, is gone. He'll likely set the tone in the Marlins clubhouse for years to come.

Good luck trying to change him now, though. When an unmistakable talent like this one keeps getting under his teammates' skin, a player so productive that he could show up sore in the sixth inning of tonight's game as a pinch-hitter and promptly tie the score with an RBI single, there's got to be something pretty annoying about his behavior or his attitude, or both.

Wes Helms, for instance, was with the Marlins during Hanley's 2006 NL Rookie of the Year season and says he really likes the kid, who at 25 is aiming toward the NL batting title.

But according to a column today on the Yahoo! Sports Web site written by longtime baseball man Gordon Edes, Helms got into it with Hanley about a month ago in a confrontation that "turned, at least briefly, physical."

Helms chose not to address any of that this evening and, in fact, made himself pretty scarce in the clubhouse before the game against Atlanta.

Think of that. An affable veteran wins an important game with a ninth-inning walk-off home run on a Wednesday night, and on the very next day he's politely telling reporters that he really doesn't have much to say and needs to hustle off to get some work in at the indoor batting cage.

When one of the most buoyant, feel-good moments of the entire season can be so quickly overwashed by another round of sticky Hanley questions, well, that demonstrates as well as anything that this is more than a passing Hanley-and-Dan tiff.

"I can't say that I'd do it the exact same way," Uggla said when asked about his stinging criticism of Ramirez's commitment to winning. "I wish things could have been handled differently, kept in the confines of the clubhouse, but that's not the way it happened."

This isn't the Bronx Zoo. It's not the 1972 Oakland A's, either. The Marlins, though so much younger than those championship teams, must demonstrate a greater maturity if they're going to make something special of September.

Can't do that without Hanley, which is too bad. Right now it looks like they can't do it with him, either.

Commentary: Marlins' Hanley Ramirez can't be bothered with explanations, apologies

[Marlinsfan4lyfe]

great use of the word rhubarb.

[THE_REAL_MIBS]

How does Dan Uggla know if Hanley Ramirez "ain't hurt," as he put it? Has Uggla earned some hidden degree? Should we call him Dr. Dan Uggla?

Can we send him to the Dolphins to observe Matt Roth, too?

One more question: Why hasn't any Marlin rallied to Ramirez's defense in the 24 hours since Uggla entered the forbidden territory of accusing a teammate of faking an injury and quitting on the team?

That would seem natural, especially when the teammate is the face of the franchise who didn't start for a third consecutive game Thursday with a hamstring injury.

All this raises Wednesday's shouting match between Uggla and Ramirez beyond the this-happens-on-every-team line manager Fredi Gonzalez understandably tried to slough it off as.

You want a harmless story like that? Here's one involving Ramirez this season. The players were stretching at Land Shark Stadium on the field before a game. Wes Helms, the designated enforcer, called out anyone who straggled in late.

"You're late," he'd say.

Ramirez was late. Helms told him so. Ramirez said something back. Helms went up to him. Ramirez shouted back. It escalated from there until the two were separated by teammates.

Yep, that kind of story happens on every team in every season. Uggla's shouting match with Ramirez went far beyond that. He called out the team's superstar on everything from faking an injury to worrying about his batting stats more than winning to a jealous-sounding rant about his having the team's only long-term contract ("You got your $70 million …")

That's not the normal talk of teammates. It cuts to something deeper. It deals with how Ramirez is perceived by those who play closest with him. Ramirez and Uggla, after all, have been double-play partners for nearly four years.

On Thursday, Uggla talked for a few minutes about their clubhouse fireworks, saying it had blown over and was forgotten. Uggla then was asked if everything was patched up.

"Ever since we got everything out in the open yesterday, we're fine," he said. "Or I'm fine."

He shrugged. "Whatever."

Ten feet away, Ramirez wore headphones and stared into the computer screen of his laptop, watching a DVD of the movie Scarface. He was at the scene where Tony Montana didn't gun down a rival riding in a car with his family.

No, no, no, Ramirez shook his head several times when asked for a minute. He wasn't talking.

Last year, the Marlins paid Luis Gonzalez $3 million in part to patrol a team closer Kevin Gregg had deemed "unprofessional." One role was to babysit Ramirez, even Gonzalez said.

This year, again, Ramirez is off the charts as a player. But, again, it seems the manner he carries himself doesn't go over as strong as his talent should. This doesn't come from teammates. It comes from a consummate pro.

"Success comes so easily to him as a player he makes it look effortless," said Andre Dawson, the Marlins' special adviser to the president. "That's when the game will break you. You've got to decide: Do you want to be great or be elite?

"Hanley's still young, but he's not that young anymore. He needs to work on some qualities that are not self-instilled in him. You've got to want it, first. You've got to want to lead by example. You've got to want to work to earn the respect of your teammates, not only on the field but in how you handle yourself in your work."

And he doesn't want to handle himself as a pro?

"He's working on it," Dawson said.

Ramirez is having a season anyone not named Albert Pujols would die for: .356 batting average, 19 home runs, 86 RBI. This won't affect that. Nothing will. He's that good.

But Ramirez, who had a pinch-hit RBI single in the sixth, didn't start the Marlins' win Thursday again. He's hurt. Or he ain't.

Nobody stepping up to defend Ramirez

[Party]

Hehe, we gave Helms a two year contract to be the Enforcer.

[Fritz]

Hanley's gonna Manny us one day, but I will enjoy his awesomeness until then.

[wanks1212]

• Although Hanley Ramirez's play has been great, Dan Uggla is far from the only Marlin who has questioned Ramirez's desire and willingness to play through injuries. ``There are 23 guys behind Uggla,'' one Marlins person said, noting Ramirez isn't popular with teammates.

Fairly or not, teammates question his toughness, partly because he skipped the 2008 season finale citing a stiff shoulder, which preserved his .301 average.

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/co...y/1219909.html

[MiamiHomer]

Our team is full of idiots then.

[Beef]

Every team is full of idiots

[MiamiHomer]

Every team is full of idiots

Very true.

[Party]

The 23 other guys behind Uggla should stop bitching and do what Hanley does.

[MiamiHomer]

It really is stupid to complain about that shit. Doesn't Hanley have to play at godly status just to get his stats where he is at and than in turn helps the team out tremendously. But no, he gets hurt and guys take it as a chance to speculate that he is taking games off to preserve stats? :Bangs head: