Guillen Suspended? Right Or Wrong?

[Yankee4Life]

First off, let me get the links to this news story out of the way.

From ESPN: Right here.

From the Miami Herald: Right here.

Finally, from MLB.com: Right here.

In a recent article in Time Magazine, Miami Marlins manager is quoted as saying that he "loves" Fidel Castro, the dictator who has ruled the island of Cuba since 1959. Obviously this has made a lot of people upset, especially if you are of Cuban decent because for generations this man has literally told the Cubans what to do, where to go, when to do it, etc.

But for some reason Ozzie Guillen said he loved him. And now, because people did not like what he said, the Marlins were pressured to suspend him from his duties as manager of the team for the next five games. Personally I think it is a publicity ploy to appease the people that are upset about this and they did it just to show them they understand why they are upset and that they didn't like what Guillen said either. For me, that was the wrong way to handle it. If I were the Marlins I would have said something like this:

While we do not agree or condone what Ozzie Guillen said about Fidel Castro of Cuba, Mr. Guillen's views and quotes are strictly his and his alone and do not represent the views and opinions of this ballclub, etc, etc, etc

What exactly happened here???

1. A manager of a baseball team gave an interview. The manager happened to be Ozzie Guillen, a man who in the past has said many controversial things and has had to apologize his way out of those. This won't be the last time he says something people won't like. Consider the source here people.

2. After reading the quote in question by Guillen I did a quick walk around my house. The TV did not explode. The dogs did not run away. The washer and dryer are still working fine. The siding did not fall off the house and the car is still running fine. What Ozzie Guillen says is not going to affect my life in any way.

3. I went to a Latino restaurant on Monday night. There were no Ozzie Guillen dartboards hung up there. The Latin customers at the other tables were not all huddled together cursing out Guillen or yelling out his name. The employees reported that no fights broke out at the mention of Ozzie Guillen's name. In fact, his name was not brought up. Their lives went on even after this interview by Guillen.

Before I end this let me clear a few things up. I am not a fan of Ozzie Guillen. I didn't care about him when he was a player or the manager of the White Sox and certainly not now. I don't pay attention to this guy. I don't log on to the net every day and before I leave I have to check on the latest news about Guillen.

What I DO SUPPORT about this guy is his right to say his opinion, despite if I agree with it or not. I look at it this way. Ozzie Guillen doesn't give a **** about what I think and the feeling is mutual. No one, Latino or not, should be so concerned with what this guy says. He's just a manager of a National League Baseball team. That's it. Just once I would like to see someone, whether they are in the world of sports, the entertainment business or in politics after they said something that people get upset over do not go backpedalling as fast as they can to deny or say they were misinterpreted, as Guillen said here.

Let him talk. He won't hurt you. I promise. And you have the right to ignore him if you want. Use that right if you see fit.

Done.

[dennisjames71]

These are pretty good points Y4L and I agree with your premises. Like ANYTHING in the media, this Ozzie/Castro situation gets blown out of proportion, is continuously played and replayed in all media outlets, and everyone wants to polarize the situation to the nth-degree; take up sides and go to proverbial “war” over what a motor-mouth baseball manager said. The problem with Ozzie is that he is a talker (and that’s a monumental understatement) and he typically lets his mouth get way ahead of his brain, when he gets into these modes. Of course what he said, was not the smartest thing to say while he works in one of the largest Cuban communities in the world; but you are right…he has the right to say what he wants and believe what he wants. You cannot hang the guy for not using any sort of social intelligence skills before opening his mouth; but this few game suspension should slap his hands enough (hopefully) so that he will look before he leaps next time.

I also agree with your point that the media (especially ESPN today) needs to dial this WAY down in yapping about it and covering it like it’s the end of WWII or the moon landing. People really needs to take this for what it is, it’s a baseball manager saying something stupid and this has been Ozzie’s shtick for the past decade or so. There are a lot of things these days to get “outraged” over; but this personally doesn’t even make my top 500 list of things to get upset over.

[DetroitStyle]

I agree with most of what you said Yankee. It is , for the most part, overblown and taken out of context. Most of what ozzie says should, and will be, ignored. Lastly, he is of course entitled to his opinion.

However, I don't think you (or many for that matter) fully appreciate the harm his words can have on many people. Don't forget, Fidel Castro was a brutal dictator (more so in the early 1960's) who has at least 30,000 deaths linked to his regime. There's a lot of cuban defectors that reside not only in the united stated but strictly in the miami area. We can't put ourselves in the mindset of other cubans but we can almost certainly liken it to Joe Girardi saying he "loves" osama bin laden, in the same context ozzie said it in. Of course the majority in new york would call for his head. Fidel means nothing to americans now, but to Cubans who have fled the country and his regimes brutality it's especially insulting.

Let's also remember that guillens sole purpose in miami is 50% managing 50% marketing. They brought him in because he can and they want him to connect with the enormous latino population in the greater miami area. They would hope it would raise interest in the team and sell tickets. Was making him a prime spokesperson for the team a good idea? In hindsight probably not, but being the face of the team he's going to be in the spotlight.

In this instance I don't beleive ozzie has freedome of opinion. As a employee of the team he needs to keep up appearences and represent the product he's pushing (baseball) in an appropriate manner. If he made the comments outside of any MLB job, then it would be acceptable.

Let him ride out his suspension and say his apologies and move on. He'll screw up again, but hopefully not offend the fan base he was brought in to attract. However, as we all know, this is going to linger in the media allllllllll season long.

[Yankee4Life]

I also agree with your point that the media (especially ESPN today) needs to dial this WAY down in yapping about it and covering it like it’s the end of WWII or the moon landing. People really needs to take this for what it is, it’s a baseball manager saying something stupid and this has been Ozzie’s shtick for the past decade or so. There are a lot of things these days to get “outraged” over; but this personally doesn’t even make my top 500 list of things to get upset over.

That's all it is Dennis. I think if people took a breath and realized that this thing they are getting all worked up about is coming from a baseball manager they would realize how silly it is to worry about what was said. This guy is not some politician who is going to be voting against a bill that would in turn directly affect you or your family and he is not a CEO of a company who is threatening to close down a factory in your town that would cost 50,000 jobs. He's just a baseball manager who said something dumb.

However, I don't think you (or many for that matter) fully appreciate the harm his words can have on many people. Don't forget, Fidel Castro was a brutal dictator (more so in the early 1960's) who has at least 30,000 deaths linked to his regime. There's a lot of cuban defectors that reside not only in the united stated but strictly in the miami area. We can't put ourselves in the mindset of other cubans but we can almost certainly liken it to Joe Girardi saying he "loves" osama bin laden, in the same context ozzie said it in. Of course the majority in new york would call for his head. Fidel means nothing to americans now, but to Cubans who have fled the country and his regimes brutality it's especially insulting.

Maybe so, maybe so. Since I am not Cuban and do not live in the Miami area I have no idea how those people there are reacting to this but it is safe to say that the mention of Castro's name would make most of them upset. Had I been Cuban my first reaction would be "what is Guillen talking about and what does he mean?" I'd want to find this out before condemning him. And with you using the analogy of Girardi talking about Bin Laden made sense. And if that ever happened, Joe Girardi would have to explain himself 100 times more than Guillen is now.

In this instance I don't beleive ozzie has freedome of opinion. As a employee of the team he needs to keep up appearences and represent the product he's pushing (baseball) in an appropriate manner. If he made the comments outside of any MLB job, then it would be acceptable.

Well, I see what you mean. But anyone in the public eye has a lot less freedom of opinion as compared to people like you and I. I did not read this article because you have to be a paying member of Time magazine online to read this and I am not about to do that but I have the feeling Guillen said this remark in passing or maybe it was an off the cuff remark. Because I don't believe anyone would say this on purpose knowing how people are these days with the way everyone analyzing everything people say.

Let him ride out his suspension and say his apologies and move on. He'll screw up again, but hopefully not offend the fan base he was brought in to attract. However, as we all know, this is going to linger in the media allllllllll season long.

Oh hell yeah. Writers in every city are going to ask him about it all year long.

[Gordo]

1st Amendment rights do not extend to the work place. If you don't think so, try to go into work tomorrow and say anything you want. My problem would have been to have the government come in and try to have hearings about this in some effort to bring in their influence and "expertise" .... as in the steroid scandal. I still don't get that. I would guess that if MLB would not have punished him, then the Marlins organization may have been put in a position to do so in order to maintain good relationships with the local folks.

What was actually worse was Mike Milbury, who I really can't stand, being fined by the NHL for comments he made about Penguins players. He's a commentator and on top of that he doesn't work for the NHL! He works for NBC!

[mvp23]

Over blown!!! He has right to his opinion...

[Yankee4Life]

1st Amendment rights do not extend to the work place. If you don't think so, try to go into work tomorrow and say anything you want. My problem would have been to have the government come in and try to have hearings about this in some effort to bring in their influence and "expertise" .... as in the steroid scandal. I still don't get that. I would guess that if MLB would not have punished him, then the Marlins organization may have been put in a position to do so in order to maintain good relationships with the local folks.

Yes, I see what you mean. You can't go into work and go up to your boss and start calling him every name in the book for a minute or two and then try to say it is your freedom of speech to do that. But then again, this wasn't like this. I don't believe Ozzie Guillen was consciously trying to insult or upset anyone. I think maybe what he said was something that made sense in his head and it just came out wrong. But it just gets back to what I was saying. Guillen said something. In the whole grand scheme of things that go on in our lives, this is something that we do not need to worry ourselves over at all.

What was actually worse was Mike Milbury, who I really can't stand, being fined by the NHL for comments he made about Penguins players. He's a commentator and on top of that he doesn't work for the NHL! He works for NBC!

I never knew this happened.

[niharjhatn]

HA - what a joke. You have people ripping into politicians like Obama and Ron Paul - indeed it is their right to do so - and now the same people accusing Ozzie of (what I assume is!) being anti-democratic and insensitive, whilst running their own 'mcCarthyist' campaign! Incredible!

[Yankee4Life]

HA - what a joke. You have people ripping into politicians like Obama and Ron Paul - indeed it is their right to do so - and now the same people accusing Ozzie of (what I assume is!) being anti-democratic and insensitive, whilst running their own 'mcCarthyist' campaign! Incredible!

Let's face facts for a second here. There are people out there who will do nothing but complain about what this person and that person has said only because it gives them the spotlight for a little while.

[DonSPa]

the bad part is if ozzie had made remarks against america the same people probally would have said 'o well thats ozzies oppinion and is his right to say so,and hes allowed but instead he said he liked someone that we dont and its an instant media thing

[Yankee4Life]

the bad part is if ozzie had made remarks against america the same people probally would have said 'o well thats ozzies oppinion and is his right to say so,and hes allowed but instead he said he liked someone that we dont and its an instant media thing

I never thought of this Don and this is a great point. You're right.

[Gordo]

Wow....some of you guys need to take a trip to the produce section next time you're at the store and look at the apples and oranges! I know patriotism and pro-American mentality has taken quite a back seat these days with some groups, but there is still a spirit of taking a stand for your country and having no regard for you enemies, tyrannts, subversives and terrorists. It's not that we just "don't like him"..... he's a Marxist/Leninist commie who, amongst many other things, allowed the USSR to store nuclear missles on his island.

Guillen is an American...not a Hispanic-American, not a Hispano-American, not a Spanish-decent-American. He's an American. He was born in America. You don't make supportive comments about long-time enemies of our freedom and principles.

It's not that we just "don't like him".... leave that silly comment for Sidney Crosby when he's talking about the Flyers.