Edwin Jackson and Adam LaRoche make fun of the incident of Pine Tar with Ozzie Guillen-MLB Update
While the issue has subsided now, the Washington Nationals’ starting pitcher Edwin Jackson and the first baseman Adam LaRoche find a moment to enjoy what happened between Ozzie Guillen and Bryce Harper the other day.
As they are good friends with the manager, they wrote a message on a bat, applied pine tar on it and dispatched it to Guillen.
On receiving the bat, Guillen could not control laughing and saying few words about Bryce Harper.
Guillen is known for his brash and free-floating attitude. Even before the Bryce Harper pine tar episode, he has been vulnerable to speaking all of a sudden during the game and becoming a cause of attention.
In the first half of the season, Guillen had an exchange of harsh words with the closer Heath Bell on the issue of spending more time on the mound. Bell wanted to continue throwing where Guillen was bent on scratching him. On this for a moment the latter
appeared vulnerable to losing his temper.
In this context, the response that Guillen uttered after watching pine tar on the bat was interesting. While one can expect that Guillen will take offence of it, fortunately he was pleasant in his reaction.
Both Edwin Jackson and LaRoche know him for the last many years and thus have cordial relations with Guillen. Perhaps, this can be one of the reasons why he took the matter lightly.
Furthermore, Guillen clarifies his reaction against Harper. He has nothing personal with Harper. Only thing he hopes to see from him is that he learns lessons from the incident and becomes mature with time.
"Just make this thing clear: 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.”
The way Jackson and LaRoche tried to enjoy the story by sending the pine tar bat to Guillen has turned the heated atmosphere of acrimony into a pleasant one. This has at-least made the matter clearer to both Harper and Guillen as they now understand each
other’s point of view better.
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