Hanley turning into Manny

Alright, I've got to admit that I don't really give a crap about this whole Hanley Ramirez thing. Yea, he could have chased that ball a little harder (or just made the play in the first place), but so what? Then it got me thinking. I mean obviously I don't care about what some guy does when he's in a Florida Marlins uni, why would I care about the fish? But there are two dynamics to a situation like this. There is the manager's dynamic, and then there's the fan and media reaction.

To some degree, I can't blame Hanley. For the betterment of the team, you don't want him acting like he's better than everyone else. But fact is...he is better than everyone on the team. In fact, he's better than most in the entire league! That aside, baseball is a team sport, not 25 individuals going in their own direction. From the manager's standpoint, I think Fredi Gonzalez was right to call Hanley out and to bench him. As a fan, even if my team were the Marlins, I still don't care. We've gone through the Manny era here in Boston, and every time he fucked up or did something stupid, it wasn't a big deal because you knew the guy was the best right-handed hitter in baseball and was good for 35-40 homers and 120+ RBI. Manny leaving Boston was a case of a divided clubhouse and the media reading into things that weren't there in the first place (thanks, Shank).

If Hanley weren't world-class and was part of the Scutaro-tier of players, then yea, fans should and would have a beef with it. But lets face reality, Hanley is almost a class of his own, and while his manager should have a problem with the antics, the fans should just accept it for what it is and just wait for him to make up for it, because it'll happen.