Aug

The More Logan Morrison Speaks, The Harder It Is To Like Him

By SCWS

Logan Morrison prides himself on being outspoken. His Twitter picture is a cartoon image of himself with duct tape over his mouth, eyes furled, seemingly frustrated with his current pastel-painted predicament: the inability to open his mouth and offer an opinion. Of course, that picture only found its way onto Morrison’s Twitter page after he *did* offer his opinion. An opinion about team owner, Jeffrey Loria, that caused the front office to have their own opinions about their highly-vocal left fielder. But, that’s Logan Morrison, equal parts stupid and naive, always ready to offer up a quote, always trying to keep it real.

“What we don’t have is experience and a veteran who is in the lineup every day that can be an anchor for us. We don’t have it.”

Asked whether Ramirez could be that anchor, Morrison said: “I guess, but he’s not there every game. It’s 162 games. It’s not a 100-game season.”

Oh, he’s keeping it real alright. Real dumb.

Media loves a guy like Logan Morrison because he makes their difficult jobs easy. Place a mic in front of him, bring up a hot-button topic and watch the story write itself. During a season of forgettable months and unprecedented slumps, the name “Hanley Ramirez” is toxic and the media knows that. Logan should know that. If Hanley can’t finish his sandwich, it makes the front page of the Miami Herald sports section. The media member who asked Morrison that question wasn’t just throwing bait into the water, hoping to catch a pike; he was chumming, knowing full well there was a big, dumb shark with its mouth wide open, swimming somewhere just below the ship.

There’s no I in T-E-A-M, but there’s certainly one in M-O-R-R-I-S-O-N. Keeping it real like this has netted him close to 58,000 Twitter followers and made him a fan favorite, not only in Miami, but in rival cities like Philadelphia, as well. People love a guy who’s always willing, and never afraid, to speak his mind and that’s the brand Morrison is selling.

Make no mistake about it, while it may come across as refreshing and honest, what Logan Morrison is doing is branding himself. No different than what Brian Wilson has been doing in San Francisco, really, except Wilson’s shtick is to be the Zach Galifianakis of baseball, whereas Morrison’s is to be the Charlie Sheen. There’s nothing inherently wrong with building your brand in a sport historically devoid of personality, but what happens when being honest and keeping it real for the sake of promoting yourself affects the players around you?

Logan Morrison could have – and pretty obviously should have – said nothing when asked about Hanley. He should have swam through the chum. The reporter may as well have put the mic in front of his face and said, “Dude, say something bad about Hanley because I’m on deadline and I’ve got nothing.” But, Morrison, never one to shy away from such a radioactive subject, gave the media exactly what they wanted and now it’s in the news cycle. There’s a reason nobody bothered to ask Gaby Sanchez.

The knock on Hanley is that he isn’t a leader, that he’s a locker room cancer. But, this latest news wouldn’t be a story today if Morrison opted to remain silent for once. By choosing to continuously put himself and his “tell-it-like-it-is” brand ahead of the best interests of the organization, by not ever knowing when to keep his mouth closed, isn’t Logan Morrison proving to be a cancer in the clubhouse? Isn’t he being the exact kind of leader he criticizes? At what point are we going to stop being amazed by what he says and start being annoyed? Why, exactly, does he get a free pass?

Morrison has every right to do what he does, to craft this media friendly, charming and comical Twitter persona. It’s an intelligent career move – especially considering that without it, he’d be Benny Agbayani – but it certainly isn’t above criticism. Sooner or later, when either he or Hanley are on a different team, when he pushes it too far, when he’s only batting .204, people are going to grow tired of the shtick. I’m already there.

Sorry. Just keeping it real, bro.

Categories : Open Thread

Ryan42

The more you flaunt your unjustified man love of Hanley Ramirez, the harder it is to like you and take anything you write seriously (even with your rampant sarcasm). Why should his abhorrent behavior be tolerated? It was barely tolerated while he was doing well (which it shouldn’t have to begin with… ) and now his little “shtick” has gotten old to everyone that actually matters, the team and the front office. Someone just finally grew a pair to call him on it other than Jeff Conine.

You are NOT part of the Marlins organization. You do not interact with Hanley on a daily basis. You don’t even have any idea what was said in the actual interview with Logan Morrison. That means that you really have no idea what is going on. As a blogger (and I guess a pseudo-journalist yourself… although this is a bit of a stretch with you), you should know comments and clips of an entire conversation are taken out of context. Then to claim on your twitter that there is something racially motivated going on with Hanley and Lomo? You are toeing the line of being totally ridiculous. You, much like all the other media outlets, are blowing an innocuous comment out of proportion in an attempt to get people to read your articles. Congrats, you accomplished that this time. This will also be the last time I read anything you write or visit this website.

alice

I think its refreshing for a guy like Lomo to want to self promote that eventually
translates to endorsent $$$$$$$$, I get it. I juine yes I get that I think a 23 yr old rookie in his first full season has absolutely no right to critize a teamate. Lomo in no way has the resume that Hanley does. I am not saying I am a Hanely die hard fan, I think he is a Diva that found out he is not THE MAN on this team anymore jealousy maybe, whatever……Conine has a long resume and a basis in which to speak out. how come Gabby Sanchez or Mike Stanton don’t speak up so much., its call professionalism There is a time to speak and a time to just shut the hell up. You should here some of the things he says on a local sports talk show (Sid Rosenberg) all he does is is cause a cancer and problems in the clubhouse.
surprisingly, Hanley has shown more class ,restraint and professionalism by not responding to Lomo comments. That why he was sent down, to grow up Lomo is not bigger that baseball.

Kathryn23

Man… I had to go and create some login to refute this stupid comment. You guys better not spam my e-mail. I prefer silently reading SCWS’s sarcastic comments and laughing to myself.

Ok. I am loud and proud Hanley hater. I don’t care where you came from, I think you should have respect for your teammates and the organization that employs you… and act accordingly. Instead of taking the high road, like SCWS suggests Lomo do, Hanley starts a public pissing contest with whomever says anything remotely negative about him. Anyways, now that I’ve got that off my chest, back to the topic at hand.

I begrudgingly have to agree with SCWS on this one (I say begrudgingly because I really don’t like Hanley…). As the old saying goes, “opinions are like a-holes, everyone has them and they all stink.” I know some ignorant fool out there is going to cry “Well I have the right to state my opinion!” Yeah, you may have the right to state your opinion, but that damn sure doesn’t mean you should. This applies in Lomo’s case. His comments do nothing but bring more negative attention to a clubhouse which is already mired with injuries, managerial issues, awful starting pitching, and all around poor performance. It is divisive to the team and it showcases to everyone that there is dissension in the ranks. This is the kind of stuff that should stay in house. While I personally enjoy Lomo’s colorful personality, there is a time and a place. He makes it all too easy for someone to stick a big ol’ bulls-eye on his back while he all too freely flaps his gums.

Boobies, I think you present a well-written and insightful argument about this, nothing overly inflammatory. I liked that you mentioned the amount of games Lomo has played in… shows a serious case of the pot calling the kettle black. To the bag of d’s that claimed he wasn’t coming back, good riddance. I’ll still be reading your blogs (the SCWS blog brought me here) and recommending people to this site. There is hope yet for sponsorship!
corycurren

Something finally provoked us SCWS followers to subscribe.

So, Ryan42, buddy,

You seem to think that all of us “Hanley lovers” sincerely enjoy his attitude and actions. Truth is, we don’t, even when feel he may be over scrutinized. We aren’t “Hanley lovers” as much as we are actual Marlins fans, willing to overlook the eccentricity of our star if it gives a shot at the postseason in the next few years. We can’t hold on to this core forever, and small market teams in baseball have a smaller window of opportunity than the big boys and you could consider all FOUR of the other teams in our division potential big spenders. This team, when playing well, can compete. But we need Hanley in our line-up to do that, and nothing in this year says that he won’t bat around .300 with 30 HRs/30 SBs in 2012. I don’t care if he COULD bat .360 and knock 40. I’ll take what I can get.

Get realistic. We’d tolerate Logan Morrison’s mile-a-minute mouth, too, if he’d get that OPS over .850. Until then, he should keep with the movie quotes on his twitter and messing around with his MLB Fan Cave buddies.
dave6834

The “Charlie Sheen of baseball”? You’re on the right track, but that one is a bit harsh, maybe he’s the Barney Frank of baseball? (I’m sure a pro athlete won’t mind being compared to a gay congressman at all…). Or to keep with the Hollywood analogy, how about Louis Black?

I agree with the general wrongheadedness of his comments, but to me this seems more like a frustrated 23-year-old forgetting to turn on his media filter after his team lost its seventh straight game. I don’t doubt his sincerity, he probably feels that way deep down inside, but even though he is outspoken, he is usually more tactful than this (two glaring exceptions notwithstanding). But perhaps my perception of LoMo is more benign than reality.

But, your best point is “when he pushes it too far, when he’s only batting .204, people are going to grow tired of the shtick.” That’s pretty much exactly what has happened with Hanley this year. I hope Morrison is self-aware enough to come to this realization before it is too late.
fishery

People think they want opinionated athletes that don’t speak in cliches. They don’t.

The comments don’t matter really. I’m sure Hanley knows how Logan feels about him. The publicity his comments about the clubhouse bring is more annoying than damaging, and he’s funny on Twitter so it might balance out.

But he’s responsible for his performance on the field and he can’t blame a lack of leadership or experience for coming up short.
milhouse trabajo

right on SCWS, until LOMO has a consistent .370+ OBP, he should focus on video of the opposing pitchers (and batting cage practice) instead of tweeting and chumming up with media. luv the agbayani reference!
Pingback: Why Was Logan Morrison Demoted? :: Marlins Daily – A Florida Marlins Blog
Simon

The best part of this whole thing, “LoMo” isn’t as witty as one may think. His agent is Einstein in the marketing department and posts the witty tweets, while Logan chimes in with the immature, snarky tweets here and there.

The More Logan Morrison Speaks, The Harder It Is To Like Him

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