(Bell would rather be listening to The Eat. And so would I!)
Marlins reliever Heath Bell had little positive to say about manager Ozzie Guillen earlier this week (“it’s hard to respect a guy that doesn’t tell you the truth or doesn’t tell you face-to-face”), and when a competing Miami radio outlet pressed Guillen for a reply, Bell’s teammates weren’t satisfied merely sending him a link. the Miami Herald’s Clark Spencer :
As Bell sat in front of his locker before Tuesday’s game in Atlanta, unidentified teammates cranked the volume on Guillen’s weekly radio call-in show on 790 The Ticket to force him to listen to their manager answer questions about the controversy.
Asked if he still respected Bell, Guillen replied, “As a player, yes. As a guy, I don’t know.”
Guillen also said that Bell had a habit of throwing others under the bus.
“I am the No.?10 guy he’s talked about this year,” Guillen said in answer to another question. “This kid has been saying so many things all year about a lot of people. It was my turn this week.”
Reporters walked in unknowingly on the awkward clubhouse scene before being detected by players and ushered back out by Greg Dobbs. But sources said the point was for players to show they supported their manager and to humiliate Bell.
And Bell acknowledged later that, in the aftermath of his incendiary comments ripping the manager, his teammates probably had little respect for him anymore.
“Yeah,” Bell said, “I’ve pretty much lost all that.”