Has It Reached A Boiling Point In Florida?

In professional sports, when it comes down to manager or coach vs. star player, the star player will always win.

In Buffalo, Dominik Hasek hated coach Ted Nolan and Nolan was out of a job. In Denver, John Elway had it with Dan Reeves and guess who left? In Florida, we might be in store for a similar situation.

Ramirez was benched on Tuesday

Things came to a head for the Florida Marlins on Monday night when Marlins’ SS Hanley Ramirez kicked a ball down the left field and instead of hustling after the ball, Ramirez jogged after it allowing two runs to score. After the inning, Ramirez was pulled from the game by manager Fredi Gonzalez.

Gonzalez and the Marlins said that Ramirez had a sore ankle, but the reality was Ramirez was pulled for lack of effort. “We expect an effort from 25 guys on this team, when that doesn’t happen, we’ve got to do something,” said Gonzalez.

Ramirez didn’t take to kindly to those words or being benched for Tuesday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“It’s his team. He can do whatever,” Ramirez said, mixing in an expletive. “There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“That’s OK. He doesn’t understand that. He never played in the big leagues,” he said.

Well then. This looks like another case of manager vs. star player and just like with the examples I gave before, the star player will win once again. Here is my reasoning for why Ramirez will win out over Gonzalez.

First, the Marlins organization isn’t in love with Gonzalez in the first place. If you remember, the Marlins wanted to fire Gonzalez in the offseason. It’s pretty clear they have no loyalty to Gonzalez and will replace him if need be.

Second, say what you want about the Marlins frugal ways, but they are one smart organization. There is no denying that. The Marlins are opening up a new stadium in 2012 and Ramirez is going to be the centerpiece of that team come Opening Day 2012.

Who is going to draw people to their new ballpark — Ramirez or Gonzalez? Pretty easy answer there.

Maybe Ramirez was really hurt, maybe he was really loafing it. I have no idea the answer to that what was really going on with Ramirez that night.

But what I do know, is that when push comes to shove, the star player will always win.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg