No Excuses for Hanley's Immaturity

The Florida Marlins are not on anyone's radar. They play in somebody elses stadium in somebody elses city. Though the team has won two World Series titles since 1993, they continue to struggle with maintaining any type of fan base or any type of national hype.

Hanley Ramirez is the biggest star on the Florida Marlins. He is a 25 year old All Star Shortstop who recently signed a $70 million dollar contract. He has taken his God-given talent and worked with it to achieve a big payday. Good for him.

In today's world athletes make an absurd amount of money. That is another topic for another article, but with money comes responsibility. Getting paid millions of dollars to play a game is something that everyone dreams of.

As a fan, all I can ask for is effort. A bad game or a bad play is just human nature; there is no control over that. However, when fans see a guy dog it on the field, that is when the backlash is as deserving as ever.

In case you missed it, Hanley Ramirez committed an error in Monday night's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He chased the ball into left field and accidentally kicked it. Again, he kicked the ball by accident, totally acceptable. What transpired next, however, is where the human error stops and human stupidity begins.

After kicking the ball, Ramirez stopped sprinting and treated Major League Baseball to a light jog through the outfield. While this jog was going on Arizona scored two runs in route to a 5-1 victory. Marlins Manager Fredi Gonzalez immediately approached Ramirez and let him know that his actions would not be tolerated and he would be benched for the rest of the day. Gonzalez was simply doing something that any good Manager would do.

No matter how good Hanley Ramirez is, he deserves heat for his inexcusable actions. This is not the first time, nor the last time, we will see a player give a lack of effort on the field. For any perpetrator of this unfortunate occurrence, the best thing to do is humble yourself and immediately apologize after the game.

Hanley Ramirez though? He would prefer to call out the manager's credibility and throw his teammates under the bus. According to Ramirez, his manager was never a Major League ballplayer, so why listen to him? His 24 fellow teammates are nowhere near his talent level, so who are they to criticize him?

All in all, Ramirez did a horrible deed and made it worse with his post game comments. Pretty soon he will likely come out with some half-ass apology that comes over 24 hours too late. The true colors of Hanley Ramirez have been shown and it will take a lot for him to win over his coach, teammates, and baseball fans everywhere. In a time when athletes are more public and noteworthy then ever, Hanley Ramirez is what other professionals should strive not to be.