So what led to Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen yelling at Washington Nationals All-Star rookie Bryce Harper in the fourth inning Sunday?
Apparently, it all had to do with pine tar.
Although Guillen surprisingly didn't want to get into the details post-game, Marlins left fielder Logan Morrison, Nationals manager Davey Johnson and Harper all provided some insight afterward.
According to Morrison, Guillen told Nationals third base coach Bo Porter, a former Marlins assistant, Harper had too much pine tar on his bat during his first at-bat.
"Ozzie did it the right way and then Harper came up the next time and pointed his bat at Ozzie. It was kind of showing him up," Morrison explained.
"He did him a favor by not going out there and telling him his pine tar was too high to the umpire. I don't know if it's an ejection. He did it in a way that isn't showing him up and Harper then showed him up was kind of a slap in the face."
The Nationals of course didn't see it that way.
"Ozzie had complained that the pine tar was too high up on Harper’s bat," Johnson explained. "So we changed it. Then he was still chirping about it. It got on the umpire’s nerves. It got on my nerves. He was trying to intimidate my player, I guess..."
Harper said he had "no clue" what Guillen was yelling about, but said he did switch bats to one with less pine tar before his second at-bat.
"It’s such a fine line," Johnson said. "They put the pine tar, it’s only supposed to be at the top of the label. Some guys, it might be over half an inch or something. There’s still a foot of the barrel to hit it with. If you hit it on the pine tar, it’s going to shatter everything. The replace the ball all the time, anyways. What’s the big deal?"
What Guillen apparently didn't like was Harper pointing the bat towards him. He made a similar gesture toward home plate umpire Marty Foster during his tirade. Asked what he yelled at Harper, Guillen joked: "Nothing. I was just telling him how cute he was."
Guillen said he planned to talk to Johnson about it before Monday's game.
"I could have said a lot of [expletive] about this kid," Guillen said. "I've been praising this kid like everyday. The last three times they asked me about him, the only thing I said was he's a great player. What he did [today] was unprofessional."
Asked if Guillen antic's bothered him, Harper said: "No. He battles for his team, and that's the type of manager Ozzie is. He's a great manager to play for. He's going to battle for you, no matter what. That's a manager you want to play for."
