Venezuelan-born manager of the Miami Marlins Ozzie Guiilen has created so much awesome.
The fracas started over the weekend, when Time magazine published an interview on its website in which the Marlins skipper said he “loved” Castro. “I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that [expletive] is still here.”
The comments might not have caused too much of a stir in many other cities. But Guillen coaches a team with a pricey new ballpark in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, densely populated by Cuban-Americans who fervently dislike Fidel Castro. What’s worse, he’s the face of a massive rebranding effort by the club, which hoped to use him as a tool to attract a potentially sizable Hispanic fan base.
The Marlins quickly distanced themselves from Guillen’s remarks, releasing a statement saying, “There is nothing to respect about Fidel Castro. He is a brutal dictator who caused unthinkable pain for more than 50 years. We live in a community filled with victims of his dictatorship and the people in Cuba continue to suffer today.”
Those potential fans are now loudly calling for him to be fired.
But the Marlins know that they can’t fire the guy for saying he loves and respects Fidel Castro. So, they suspended him for five games and made him do one of those shamed press conferences usually reserved for athletes and entertainers caught on tape talking about kikes and coons.
“This is the biggest mistake so far in my life,” said a tired-looking, slightly perturbed Guillen, who conducted the hour-long press conference mostly in Spanish. “If I don’t learn from this, then I will call myself dumb.”
Set aside for a moment the bliss you feel watching this crappy baseball franchise shit the bed. Ozzie Guillen is Venezuelan. His country has very close cordial relations with Cuba. The leaders of both countries have been the targets of coup d’etat attempts at the hands of our intelligence agencies. And this franchise just suspended their manager for stating his true opinion about those facts.
I guess he was suspended for offending the sensibilities of the Marlins’ core customers and community. He certainly did do that. I guess that’s what happens when the management of a baseball team hires a Latino manager on the assumption that they all think alike and the Cubans will flock to watch the Venezuelan manage.
The Marlins have a new name, new uniforms, a new stadium, a new manager…and a giant problem. I’m laughing my ass off.
And, no, I do not love or respect Fidel Castro. I just think we acted like imbeciles when he took over, and we haven’t improved any in the intervening 63 years. Oh, and anyone who is sentimental for Fulgencio Batista? They deserve at least a five game suspension.
They have two titles in the last 15 years so the franchise can’t be totally crappy, unless you’re going by some kind of entitled Yankee fan metric. I seem to recall them beating the Yankees…
yes. two wildcard championships. the first one followed by the complete dismantlement of the team.
Into the wayback machine:
Yes. Two wildcard championships. The first one followed by the complete dismantlement of the team.
The second was followed by the dismantlement of the team as well.
By this standard 27-29 teams in the league are crap. They’ve all done crappy things and had crappy management. Most don’t have two titles in the last two decades. The only reason they’re still around is because the game is a MONOPOLY.
I don’t know of more than one team that managed to get sued by their broadcaster for responding the money and fame of a World Championship by selling off so many good players that they lost 108 games and totally alienated their fan base.
But go ahead and defend the Marlins.
I can’t, it’s too hard to overcome my total indifference to every aspect of this story.
Which means everyone behind the scenes is really good if they can build WS victors by scratch.
Unlike the Yankees who can simply throw money at a problem.
I’m not going to defend baseball’s lack of a salary cap, not am I going to defend Steinbrenner’s long reign.
But, currently, the Yankees are a very well run organization on every level. I would expect them to be one of the best teams in baseball even in a salary-capped system that forced them to part ways with more than half their star players.
Big markets and big television contracts guarantee nothing. Look at the Dodgers. And then look at the Twins. Does anyone doubt the Twins would be winning championships if given the Dodgers’ budget? Anyone believe the Dodgers’ organization could win 60 games on the Twins’ budget?
There are good baseball organization and bad ones. The Marlins have shown the ability to ramp up enough to get in the playoffs as a wildcard and get hot at the right time and win two championships. They get credit for that. But both those teams and those management groups imploded after winning.
Take a poll of ballplayers and see how many of them admire the Marlins and want to work for them.
The most successful low-budget franchises I can think of are the Marlins, Rays, Twins, and Athletics (until a few years ago). While the Rays look like the best organization of the four, only the Marlins have won any titles in the last 15 years. I do admire how they managed to peak twice with entirely different sets of personnel. That’s got to be hard. That said, they probably made it harder than it needed to be with the fire sales.
Funny thing — all the right-wingers who denounced the treatment of John Derbyshire seem to be strangely silent on this one. Those folks don’t uphold a single standard with regard to speech! Who would have guessed?
In fairness, this press conference was conducted mostly is Spanish, which caused the Derbyshire defenders to suffer a case of apoplexy rendering them unable to put finger to keyboard.
actually I’m sure that there were quite a few Cubans in Miami that truly missed Batista.
Ozzie, in a separate ESPN interview, apparently he said after games he goes to the hotel bar and drinks himself into unconsciousness. Rinse and repeat.
That TOO would explain much of his volatile and erratic words and actions. He’s a drunk.
And a pretty good baseball mind.
A lot like Billy Martin, only with an accent.;)
Just don’t ask him about politics. It is outside of his expertise.
But I also have very little sympathy for anything that happens in FL. I simply hate the place.
I like Ozzie, and unlike a lot of others it seems he really does try to understand when people are hurt by what he says.
But a great baseball mind? Uh…
He did win a WS.
He had a stellar career.
He is no Billy Martin, I will give you that.
But it IS just baseball. It does not take that great a mind.
That’s part of the appeal.