Beef Hell

This story just keeps getting better and better. Ozzie Guillen had his chance to respond to Heath Bell's most recent criticisms on Tuesday:

"It was my turn this week," Guillen said of Bell's latest criticism. "Last week it was somebody else, the pitching coach. The week before it was the catchers, and the week before that it was the scouting report. When all these things pile up, then you don't have respect for someone. When you read every week, it's another [excuse], another, another ... all kind of stuff. You have to have principles. You have to look yourself in the mirror and blame yourself."

Sick burn, Oz. Making this all the better: the Marlins held a closed-door meeting to huddle around a radio and listen to Guillen's radio interview on Tuesday, so Bell had to listen to all of this with his teammates (probably) glaring at him. Bell said Tuesday that he's probably lost his teammates' respect (you think?).

But wait, it gets better.

First, Bell left Ozzie a voicemail apology on Monday night, only Ozzie never heard it because he didn't recognize Bell's number on his caller ID and deleted the message without listening to it. "I thought it was one of the media asking me about what happened," Guillen later said.

Then, Bell did whatever anyone does when they get caught saying something stupid: he blamed the media for being around to write down his dumb words:

All I have to say is what was taken yesterday on ESPN was out of proportion. I was not criticizing Ozzie one bit. I’m not retracting anything I said but that report on ESPN News, I’d say 80 percent of it was false.

Who said the Marlins wouldn't provide captivating drama when they fell out of the pennant race? Not me!

We (I) have a word for athletes who complain to the media about their bosses then chastise the media for directly quoting them: assholes.

Heath Bell is an asshole. Ozzie Guillen is no angel, but at least when he said something abominably stupid (even more idiotic than Bell's comments, but no need to beat a dead horse), he owned up to it and apologize. Bell went the petulant child route (I wonder where he learned that), and it is a color that doesn't suit him.