MLB Report: Three Cheers For Hustling Hanley Ramirez

After watching the replay several times, I can’t help but think that Florida Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez and manager Fredi Gonzalez have turned this moving violation into an all-out 40-car pileup.

To catch you up, Ramirez (literally) booted a lazy Texas leaguer that he could not get to in left field. He then jogged out to retrieve the ball , while runners trotted around the bases, before firing it back to the infield.

Two runs scored on the play, but they would have scored even if Usain Bolt was chasing the bounding baseball into the left field corner. Ramirez, who was already playing with a hurt ankle, didn’t need to over exert himself to try and keep the hitter from reaching third.

In a sport where sneezing has sent guys to the disabled list, why should Ramirez hustle for such a trivial play? Why put extra stress on his other muscles to keep pressure off his ankle? That’s how injuries are created, and that’s what keeps guys out of lineups for months.

Like Ramirez said after the game, Manager Fredi Gonzalez obviously doesn't understand this—and for a .500 team like the Marlins who are trying to get to the playoffs, their season could be all but over if Ramirez were to miss that kind of time.

After the play, Gonzalez had little choice other than to remove his star from the game and bench him the next day for a lack of hustle.

That is the facade he must keep up for the rest of the team, that they will be held to a standard of giving maximum effort 100 percent of the time.

That’s a great ideal to uphold in little league, but it rarely works in the pros.

Here’s how it’s going to go down: The Marlins will miss the playoffs this year because the team is full of mediocre players and young prospects. Eventually, Gonzalez will be fired (fairly or unfairly) for not being able to take the team to the next level.

Ramirez is signed through 2016 and is one of the best players in the game. Who do you think will ultimately win this battle? The super-stud athlete with the pedigree or the largely-replaceable manager?

While it’s clear that Han-Ram has a much longer leash from the Marlins’ higher-ups, he made the egregious error of coming off with a holier than thou, unapologetic attitude.

Put it this way: All he had to do was apologize to the fans and his teammates, explain that his ankle was really bothering him and that he wanted to win so badly for them that he didn’t want to admit the injury and come off the field.

Florida then places him on the DL for two weeks and he is a warrior hero in Florida. Gonzalez keeps his thoughts to himself, only telling the media that he took Ramirez out because of an injury. But this would be too easy.

Instead Ramirez degrades his manager, saying Gonzalez has never played in the big leagues and therefore "doesn't get it."

Rather than handling this situation in the locker room, Gonzalez fuels the fire by answering questions about Ramirez to the media and, in the process, loses respect from his franchise player.

Man alive, if a blogger in Northeast Wisconsin like me can figure this out, why do highly-paid professionals butchered it to the point of scandal?