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The Segio Mitre issue

By craig

It is true, as SprintSTboy said, that Samson railed on Sergio Mitre for not attending FanFest.

Every Marlins player attended FanFest except pitcher Sergio Mitre, whose absence from the team's community activities last week disappointed management.

''He said he couldn't do it, and that's not good enough,'' Marlins president David Samson said. ``His explanation was unacceptable.''

Samson declined to say if Mitre would be fined, noting the matter would be handled internally.

Mitre's agent, Matt Sosnick, said Mitre had ``personal stuff with his family. If they really wanted to make it internal, Samson wouldn't have said anything aloud.''

It is truly a classless thing to do to publicly rant about a player who wasn't in attendance.  Sure, all of the Marlins have it in their contracts that they must attend FanFest, but to take it public is unacceptable.  If Sergio's reasons for not attending are unacceptable to the front office, then berate him in private, but not in front of the fans.

Of course, as it turns out, Mitre wasn't the only player to miss FanFest.

There were only a few no-shows among players, including pitcher Sergio Mitre, infielder Alfredo Amezaga and reliever Renyel Pinto. Some Latin-born players were not there Saturday because they are still working out their visa issues before Spring Training begins on Saturday at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Fla.

I completely agree that all players should be at FanFest, if possible.  But the operative words in the previous sentence are: if possible.  And if they don't attend, it should be taken up internally and not in front of the fans at the kickoff event of the season.

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