It seems Hanley Ramirez has had enough of the controversy he helped to create the past several days, and is blinking first in the player/manager staredown.
Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez told ESPN Deportes he’s sorry the last couple of days have gotten so "ugly" and that he is prepared to apologize to his teammates, paving his way for a return to the lineup tonight for the start of a two-game series in St. Louis.
Ramirez said that his teammates and the fans "do not deserve this." Manager Fredi Gonzalez had told two radio stations earlier today that the issue would be resolved.
"It’s going to be resolved one way or the other today," Gonzalez told WQAM-560. "I would be really surprised if he’s not in the lineup today. We’ll take care of it and he’ll be in the three hole playing shortstop."
Unless Hanley really feels that the fans deserve an apology as well, his regrets will more than likely be made behind closed doors, and all we fans will ever hear on the subject will be the obligatory "we're still a family; sometimes families have disagreements" fluff that players and managers toss around in the wake of such controversies.
Sigh.
We're about to go back to the yawn-inducing, cookie cutter statements to the media that we got a refreshing breather from this past few days, and so we will be left to speculate as to what exactly Hanley said to his teammates. Hanley's comments to ESPN Deportes may give us a bit of a clue, because saying that you're sorry things have gotten ugly is not the same as accepting responsibility for said ugliness...
"Uh, I'm sorry that you all mistook my grave injury for selfishness and a lack of hustle, and I'm sorry you falsely accused me of dogging that play. I realize that none of you have ever been superstars or signed 70 million dollar contracts, and therefore do not have the capacity to understand what it's like to be me, so I forgive you."
Ahhh, the Fish are about to be one big happy team again.