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| Has Ozzie Guillen finally made peace with Bryce Harper? (Associate Press) |
You'll recall that Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen recently had any number of bees in his bonnet over the pine-tarred bat of Bryce Harper. At first, it was a banal enough controversy, but Guillen couldn't seem to let it go. Now, though, two of Harper's teammates -- Edwin Jackson, who played for Guillen, and Adam LaRoche, whose father played with Guillen -- have helped bring about detente. How'd they do it?
Jackson and LaRoche had the unwitting Harper autograph a bat and then afterward they added an inscription -- "To my hero Ozzie. Love you" -- and slathered it in pine tar. They sent it over to Guillen, who said he "thought it was funny."
"Just make this thing clear," Guillen told Juan C. Rodriguez of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel after receiving the peace offering, "I don't have anything against [Harper]," Guillen said. "I think whatever happened, happened. Whatever I said, I said. I think this kid is going to be good for the game. There's no doubt this kid is very good. We need players like that to come out and play the game right.
"What he did, maybe because he's a kid. I hope he learned from that. Even if his manager said I was trying to intimidate him. I wasn't. That was the last thing that went through my mind."
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