The vote has been tallied, and the Marlin Maniac is ready to announce the Douchebag of the Year award.  This brand-new, just-invented prize was created to recognize the single most memorable piece of jackass journalism noted during the previous season.  Please note that yours truly is responsible for the only ballot cast to select the winner.

This year’s nominee also wins the coveted “Popped Collar” wreath on his trophy because he actually managed to destroy a career as a result of his typewriter malpractice.

The winnah and world champeen?  Our man Sean Gregory over at that bastion of the sporting press, Time.  Assigned to write an article about the move of Ozzie Guillen from Chicago to Miami, Gregory took an out-of-context remark that was immediately walked back, and made it the opening line of his article.  Using Guillen’s quote the way he did, Gregory’s clear intention was to whip up as much hysteria as possible, and to paint Guillen in as negative a light as he could.

Since then, I don’t think I’ve seen one article with Ozzie as the main topic that didn’t mention Gregory’s article. Now, citing the “controversy”, the Marlins fired Ozzie.  By phone. Too bad for Larry Beinfest that he’s not a writer.  He could have been a serious contender for the DoY.  It really takes an epic absence of balls to fire a key guy in your organization via telephone.

Congratulations, Mr. Gregory.  You’ve earned it.  Take it home, put it on your mantle, and then go into your bathroom and look yourself in the eye. Ask yourself if Ozzie Guillen was actually in the tank for Castro and you were breaking the story about the equivalent of David Duke being named as CEO of the NAACP, or did you inflate a retracted quote from a Venezuelan with a heavy accent and use it in a way that you hoped would create the most controversy possible?

That kind of narcissism truly deserves an award.

Dec 5, 2011; Dallas, TX, USA; Miami Marlins president of baseball operstions Larry Beinfest (left) announces the signing of closer Heath Bell (not pictured) during the MLB winter meetings at Hilton Anatole. Bell was signed for 3 years and $27 million. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE

“Et tu, Brute” said Julius Caesar to the man that decided that he knew what was best for Rome, and Ozzie Guillen has taken a shiv to the ribs in the form of a plane ticket and a public firing.

Larry Beinfest has successfully deflected blame from himself, and has successfully whispered in Jeffrey Loria’s ear, so we’re on the hunt for a new sucker manager to helm the Fish for 2013. The palace guard has closed ranks, and the Praetorians have eliminated the threat.

Whoop-de-do.

I think it’s a bad decision by the front office, because it’s simply lays the blame for the season on Guillen, and doesn’t account for guys like John Buck, Heath Bell, Eduardo Perez, or Hizzoner Larry.

When you have players (Hanley) thinking that they have a direct line to Loria, and don’t have to hustle, play hard, hit, or otherwise make extraordinary effort to improve their failing numbers, it absolutely undermines the authority of the manager, and cripples his ability to effectively manage the team.

My confidence level for 2013 has hit rock bottom.  The dim glimmer of hope that remains is that Loria figures out that he needs to fix all problems at once, and finds his Mike Shanahan, and figures out how to let the right guys run the roster.

Hint: It’s not Larry Beinfest, and it’s not David Samson, and it’s not Jeffrey Loria.

Please, oh, please…don’t let this go past 2013.  Figure it out now, so the new stadium, and the new brand leads to a pennant for the Fish. Please don’t let you fear of losing a job or your thin skin keep us in the cellar for any longer than necessary.

March 17, 2012; Jupiter, FL, USA; A detail view of Miami Marlins third baseman Hanley Ramirez new decals on his batting helmet before a spring training game against the Minnesota Twins at Roger Dean Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

The various playoffs have mostly settled themselves out, and the Cinderella seasons for Baltimore, Washington, and Oakland have come to a close as the Giants and Cardinals duke out the NLCS and the Tigers and Yankees are settling the American League pennant. Personally, I’m ambivalent, as long as the National League wins the World Series.

Back here at home, everything has gone quiet.  We don’t expect any news on the first round of post-season restructuring until Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen gets home from his trip to Spain.  Just before the break, rumors were leaning heavily towards Ozzie’s ouster, but the source of most of those rumors is a Miami front office whose long-term employment prospects are also unclear. It is a situation reminiscent of the old saw about the two woodsmen evading a charging bear; no one has to run faster than the bear,  you just have to run faster than the other guy.

The bear, of course, is Jeffrey Loria.  The fate of the front office staff rests on his shoulders.  In a perfect world, he would make his decision on the top two or three front office guys, and whichever way he decides, it should be up to them to make all of the remaining on-field personnel decisions, including the decision on whether or not to keep Ozzie as the manager. We all know the world ain’t perfect.

Let me reiterate for those of you who haven’t had the privilege of following the Redskins since Dan Snyder bought the team: the owner of a team should focus only on the business side of the franchise.  He should set the payroll for the year, and then turn his focus to ancillary aspects of the business, such as TV rights, merchandising, and ticket sales. It should be up to the general manager to hire the coach, and to work with that coach to sign those players that fit within the budget and offer the best chance for a championship.

Oct. 2, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen (13) fields questions from reporters before a game against the New York Mets at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

This season, like so many uncomfortable events in our lives, has finally passed. Now we can go about the business of figuring out how to make sure we do everything we can to make sure that it doesn’t happen next year. My use of the NASCAR “we” is deliberate, because as fans, we do indeed have an influence on the course of the Marlins through several avenues. The box office is our trump card, but we can only play it during the season. During the off season, we have to resort to other tools and start playing small ball in order to influence ownership and the front office to make the kind of off-season moves that we think will benefit the team.

It will take a unified chorus of individual voices to rise above the din of factors that will affect the decisions made by Marlins executives this winter. One of the biggest hurdles to the effectiveness of that tool is the historically fickle nature of fans in this market.  Like the proverbial kid chasing butterflies in right field, Miami fans are famous for flitting from one Next Big Thing to the next. First and foremost, we need to overcome the acidic stylings of a sporting press that has a long-standing tradition of holding thinly disguised disdain for professional sports franchises in Miami. Disdain, coupled with the glee with which the transplanted Boston, New York, and Philadelphia fans wave the articles under the noses of the local fans, has weakened the resolve of our fan base, and it’s time that us loyalists start working to stiffen the spines of the stragglers we all know.

Recall, if you will, the splashy, ill-advised media event that turned the arrival of LeBron James into a circus of poor taste.  The northeastern press pounced on the story with gusto, propping Cleveland up on a pedestal of virtue with the relentless fervor usually reserved for the “life story” of the person responsible for a minor piece of legislation. The failure of the Heat to capture the title that year ignited a season-long storm of criticism that only dissipated with the electric finale of the NBA playoff chase this year.

This year, the Marlins opened a gem of a ballpark, and brought in a handful of high-flash free agents.  The NBA was a ways away from the playoffs when spring training started, so the buzz was loud and positive. The Marlins were “new”, “fresh” and judged to be pennant contenders. Then, right before the home opener, Time Magazine published a Sean Gregory article that was a superficial look at the arrival of an outspoken, colorful manager to a newsworthy, colorful team that dropped a boatload of cash in the off season. Time being Time, and Gregory being Gregory, the opening sentence was designed to gin up as much controversy as was possible in an otherwise innocuous story. Leading with Ozzie Guillen’s use of Fidel Castro’s ability to stay in power for so long as an example of tenacity was an effective long-term sucker punch, as there hasn’t been a single article since mid-September that doesn’t at least partially attribute the Marlins’ horrible season to that immediately retracted Guillen comment. The Marlins’ dead-last-in-all-of-baseball inability to bring home runners in scoring position apparently had little to do with this year’s W-L record, nor did their ability to carry a lead from a starting pitcher to the end of the game.

The fourth estate is busy putting the finishing touches on the gallows they’ve built for Ozzie, but it’s at odds with an undercurrent of support for him found at water coolers all over South Florida.  For example, the Sun-Sentinel’s Juan Rodriguez hosted a live pregame chat just before Adam Greenberg went in for his cup of coffee. The chat room featured a real-time poll that asked voters whether or not they felt that Ozzie should be replaced for 2013.  Surprisingly, here in deep blue, militantly PC South Manhattan, the poll was 85% in favor of Ozzie staying right where he is.  The commentary in the chat was pretty clearly of the opinion that a multitude of factors, from the front office to the clubhouse, contributed to the woes.

The Marlins, from the eye-popping new ballpark, new uniforms, and new logo to Jeffrey Loria and Ozzie Guillen, are undoubtedly a colorful, raucous bunch, but very well suited to the colorful, raucous melting pot that is so emblematic of South Florida. Ozzie fits in here, and it would be shortsighted to pin the season’s failure to his uniform alone.  If there is any valid criticism of his specific season, it’s that the Marlins had a relatively young clubhouse this year, and his laissez-faire style might be better suited to a veteran team.  Our young guys may have needed a less distant leader than Ozzie was this year. Not necessarily a friend or a “player’s manager”, but one who would spend more one-on-one time inspiring and leading. Working with Ozzie to develop that style might be a better idea than sending him packing.

Firing Ozzie would be a knee-jerk reaction from Loria, much like the way a rattlesnake nearly blinded by a pressing need to shed his skin will strike at shadows. Deferring the decision until after the reported trips to Europe have passed will allow the sting from the abysmal season to abate a bit, and will allow the front office the ability to make unemotional decisions in a way that will not cause the loss of face that a heat-of-the-moment firing would. The press would have a field day with “I told you so” articles.

As fans of baseball, and of the Marlins, we can show support for our team, and perhaps have a small influence on the direction the team takes this winter. That support will be most effective if it rises above the din of a hostile mainstream press with a clear, unequivocal voice that will hopefully penetrate the walls of the executive suite at Marlins Park.

Sept. 17, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins relief pitcher Mike Dunn (left) is taken out of the game by manager Ozzie Guillen (13) during the eighth inning against the Atlanta Braves at Marlins Park. The Braves won 7-5. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

So the manager’s merry-go-round is spinning, and in an effort to stir as many pots as possible, the mainstream sporting press is in full hysteria mode trying to paint Ozzie Guillen as an unhinged, undisciplined, insensitive walking gaffe-fest. I’m sorry, but I simply don’t see it the same way that Jaffe, Olney, Corcoran, et al do.  Everything still seems to pivot around the flap about Ozzie’s comment to Time magazine early in the season.

That was six months ago, and the article was a hit piece to begin with. Furthermore, his comments were about Castro’s ability to stay in power, and was never an expression of support for either Castro or his government. Once again, we see an example of a guy getting tarred with the racist brush for comments determined to be racist by the mainstream press. In the article, Guillen heard how his comment sounded, and immediately walked it back. Still, the manufactured controversy continues.

Guillen has been a colorful manager, to be sure, but so have countless others in baseball’s colorful past.  Ozzie keeps the Marlins in the press, which probably makes Loria happy, in a “bad press is better than no press” way.

Bottom line: If Ozzie is a really bad manager, sure…fire him.  So far, I’ve seen nothing to show that he’s a really bad manager.