Guillen Lashes Out at Nats' Harper

Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen put his short temper on display Sunday afternoon, hurling some choice words at Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper over the amount of pine tar on his bat.

In the fourth inning of Sunday's game (which the Marlins lost 4-0), Guillen yelled at Harper from the Marlins' dugout. Earlier in the game, he thought the pine tar on Harper's bat was too high on the bat (which is against the rules), so he issued a complaint to Nationals third-base coach Bo Porter.

According to the Miami Herald, the 19-year-old Harper pointed his bat towards Guillen in the fourth inning, drawing his ire. Guillen went to home plate to complain to home-plate umpire Marty Foster, an action which did not sit too well with the Nationals.

"Ozzie had complained that the pine tar was too high up on Harper's bat," Nationals manager Davey Johnson told the Miami Herald. "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."

"The umpire was trying to calm [Harper] down," Johnson told MLB.com. "But with Ozzie, it's the more the merrier."

The Marlins did not interpret the incident the same way. Logan Morrison said Harper was the guilty party, for drawing attention to Guillen. "Ozzie did it the right way and then Harper came up the next time and pointed his bat at Ozzie," Morrison told the Herald. "It was kind of showing him up."

"He did him a favor by not going out there and telling him his pine tar was too high to the umpire," Morrison continued. "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."

Johnson called the pine-tar issue "a fine line," adding, "[it] might be over half an inch or something" sometimes. Under MLB rules, pine tar can only be applied to the bat below the bat's label.

Nonetheless, Guillen did not like Harper's attitude, and he let everyone know exactly how he felt after the game. "I could have said a lot of [expletive] about this kid," he told the Herald. "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."

The Marlins and Nationals will wrap up a four-game series on Monday, but there probably will not be any lingering resentment from Sunday's incident. Harper praised Guillen after the game, telling the Herald, "That's a manager you want to play for."

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