Oz no longer can hide behind the curtain
Herald-News editorial April 12, 2012 10:26PM
Updated: May 14, 2012 8:18AM
So Ozzie Guillen finds himself this week in the center of a tempest over his praising Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, angering Cuban-Americans and getting suspended for five games as the Miami Marlins manager.
Couldn’t see that coming, huh?
Our initial reaction to Guillen’s comments to a Time magazine reporter that he loves and respects Castro was, boy, we’re glad his egocentric, and occasionally offensive, babbling no longer reflects on the White Sox and Chicago.
Guillen wore out his welcome here well before he left the Sox with a few games remaining last season. In reality, he had distanced himself from the team weeks, if not months, earlier when he felt disrespected by not getting a contract extension and it became apparent that Miami would offer him a fat contract to take over the team.
Tired of Guillen’s macho, and often profane, rantings and his feuding with the equally egotistical GM Ken Williams, not many Sox fans regretted his departure.
Though we had doubts that Guillen’s verbal volatility would play much better in Miami, we had no idea he would manage to quickly and effectively alienate a populace so critical to the Marlins’ future success. About 70 percent of all Cuban-Americans reside in the South Florida market.
As opposed to his apologies for offensive remarks when he was Sox manager, Guillen’s mea culpa over his Castro comments seemed sincere, probably because he realized he had really stepped in it this time.
But he still rolled out that lame excuse that he has trouble expressing himself in English and didn’t say what he meant to say. Some in Miami and the national media might buy it, but we in Chicago know better.
Guillen has been yakking away in the U.S. for more than 30 years and knows full well what he’s saying.
So the Ozziroo finds himself on a very short leash and still has to deal with the Marlins’ goofy owner, Jeffrey Loria, who drove Joe Girardi out in 2006 after one season in which he was voted NL Manager of the Year.
Can Guillen survive? Who knows? Thankfully, it’s not our problem.
