The new manager of the Miami, nee Florida, Marlins, Ozzie Guillen, stepped into it big time as he heaped praise on the Red Cuba former dictator, Fidel Castro in a recent interview with Time magazine.
Unfortunately, the cheapskates at Time won't let you read the whole article unless you are a subscriber.
But here is the link anyway.
The point is that Mr. Guillen is no stranger to controversy.
And once one reads the kind of gloss-over at Wikipedia, it kind of scratches the surface.
Mr. Guillen is a native of Venezuela. And in 2005, after as manager he led the Chicago White Sox to win the World Series, Mr. Guillen supposedly shouted "Viva Chavez!" in reference to the pseudo-dictator of his homeland, Hugo Chavez. In that situation, he later claimed that he does not support Mr. Chavez. And Mr. Guillen did not attend the celebration for the team's win at the White House. Hmm, could that be because of the president at that time? One George W. Bush?
Ahh, but what really got people's panties in a bunch was Mr. Guillen referring to a Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist, Jay Marrioti as a "fag".
Once one gets the gay and lesbian community in an uproar, well it is surprising that he remained with the White Sox after that.
But in the Political Correct world, they were in a pickle.
Dump the Venezuelan, Hispanic (or is that White-Hispanic?!) manager to please the homosexuals or keep Mr. Guillen so as to not offend the Venezuelan, Hispanic community.
Mr. Guillen stayed.
So, Mr. Guillen is one that likes to stir the pot.
But here is where the plain stupid enters in the whole controversy.
In case Mr. Guillen did not know, the team he is now manager of, the Miami Marlins, is in the largest Cuban city outside of Cuba. Oh, and the new baseball stadium, Marlins Park, sits right adjacent to. . .Little Havana!
So Mr. Guillen, who has already at one time seemingly praised Hugo Chavez, decided to show Fidel Castro some love. You know, how amazing it is that he stayed in power since 1959. How cool it is that Castro survived the Bay of Pigs and other attempts to bring him down.
OK, could the dude have just started a fire and burned the new baseball stadium?
He might as well have.
Because if one thing trumps angry homosexuals and potentially angry Venezuelan-Americans it is really angry Cuban-Americans.
Imagine that this comment drew a five-game suspension. Not from Major League baseball. But from the Marlins Management.
The Marlins slapped the unusual suspension because of the avalanche of bad publicity in the local Cuban-American community.
But here is the thing.
I do not think that Mr. Guillen should have been suspended.
Mr. Guillen is to the sports world what many a Hollyweird celebutard is.
Not all that bright.
I mean, I think that he has that dual thinking that many Central and South Americans have towards the United States.
Most of the people love the United States. But because of years of indoctrination, the same people have had a hate for what is a catch-all phrase.
That is "Yankee imperialism".
Many don't want to see a Cuba-like communist dictatorship. But they like, well kind of what Mr. Guillen said.
That Fidel Castro has essentially given the United States the middle-finger since 1959. And we have done nothing but keep them in the virtual stone-age with an endless economic embargo.
Hell, Fidel gave power over to his younger brother, Raul.
What Mr. Guillen reminds me of is the young, generally but not always, White skater boys that wear the Che Guevara t-shirts while skating down the road. Almost none of the kids have any idea about Guevara and the fact that he was to Communist revolution what Josef Mengele was to Nazi Germany.
I don't think that Mr. Guillen really has a clue about politics at all. He just spouts-off and then has to realize that he had no idea what he was talking about.
Maybe Mr. Guillen, in the first link, has a problem with alcohol. Read the article. Just sayin'.
That could be why he says such things.
But suspending Mr. Guillen for being stupid, well that is exactly the wrong message. After, he did apologize. I do not know if Marlins' management made him do it, but he did. And the Marlins knew what they were getting in the person of Mr. Guillen.
For the Cuban-American community in Miami, they are right to be mad at him. But take the opportunity to educate Mr. Guillen the truth about life under the Castro brothers. That means as uncomfortable as it is, they need to embrace him and educate him at the same time. Seeking to censor Mr. Guillen is not the way to go. It is exactly what they are fighting against in their old homeland.
Mr. Guillen, I believe, has been punished enough for being an idiot. Time to either get rid of him or let him manage and keep his politics to himself.
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