I know there's already a thread about this in the Baseball sub-forum, but it doesn't seem to have gotten much attention in the last few days. I thought it would get a little more visibility here. so what's everyone think of the controversy surrounding Ozzie Guillen's comments about how he loves and admires Fidel Castro. at this point, I don't think it's so much what Ozzie said about Fidel that's the story, as much as the controversy and media obsession it has caused, including all the ridiculous and ignorant (at least in my mind) comparisons of Castro to Hitler by people trying to explain their outrage. is it just me, or is this really not that big of a deal? is it just me, or does the Cuban ex-pat community in the US have too much of an irrational hatred of Castro. I get it that they were personally affected by what Castro did, but dude, get over it! seems like some people just go through life looking for things to get offended about. I've been listening to sports radio for the last couple of days and between the Bobby Patrino story and this one, everyone seems to be all up in arms about things that really don't have anything to do with them and don't impact them in any real way. some dude on the radio yesterday thought Ozzie owen America an apology!!! seriously?? he was going on and on about the Cuban Missile Crisis, about what Castro did to Cuba, how he turned it from a paradise into an economic and political backwater, etc. I just thought it was a little much. if you want to hear ignorance spouted (even worse than P&CE), there's nothing quite like sports jocks and their counterparts in the media speak about non-sports-related topics....
I think the Marlins overreacted but I understand why they did. Can't risk losing a couple hundred fans when you usually draw less than half of what the Wizards did pre Livestrong.
yeah, I don't necessarily disagree with what the organization did. they did what they felt they had to do to hold on to the few fans they still have. it's the ignorant media frenzy that I have a problem with. some of these talking heads sound like they're re-living the cold war! a startling stat I read yesterday that less than 30% (I think the actual number was 23%) of MLB players have college degrees.
The Cuban community overreacts every time they hear "Fidel". They get a chance to hold a press conference and get some face time. Many groups are like this. Why should it be shocking that a native Venezuelan, who has his own communist ( or whatever brand of Govt they are running down there) dictator, likes the fellow from Cuba.
the guy didn't even say he agreed with Castro's policies, ideology or methods. he basically said he admired the guy for his ability to stick around for so long, even in the face of such opposition. he admired one particular characteristic of the guy - his tenacity or longevity or what have you. what's with all the outrage??
I don't think the Marlins overreacted at all. They know their fanbase, and had to take action, just to save some of their base. That's what companies do. That's what I expected them to do. And that's what they did. But for all the people who talk of Fidel in the same breath as Hitler, I have serious problems. It's as though people have never heard of Fulgencio Batista before and what he was doing that led to the Castro led revolution to begin with (yanno, like realizing he was going to lose a constitutionally held election, so instead gathering up military backing and making himself a dictator ... with the backing of the US since he was allowing large US companies to have their way with the island, for his own personal gain). The only reason the US cares about this is because we lost the goose that laid the golden egg. If Fidel had done the same things to Cuban people that he ultimately did, while still playing ball with the US (as Batista was doing), the conversation on Fidel would be completely different here. By many accounts Batista had killed as many as 20-25K Cubans before the US finally told Batista he was on his own (with Castro on his tail), and that was in a 5 or 6 year period in the mid to late 50's. Far from the paradise that many today claim Cuba was prior to Castro. But again, it doesn't matter with respect to the Marlins. Perception is reality. Guillen has to know that and has to be smarter than to delve into that political quagmire while the coach of that team. It's just the way it goes.
You can say pretty much anything you want in Miami. But homophobic slurs and "I love Fidel" are about the only two things you can't say when your stadium is in Little Havana and you're making a push to appeal to Downtown Miamians. Now, the exact content of what Guillen said wasn't that outrageous - the basic gist was that while acknowledging how horrible he found his resilience to be remarkable. Framed any other way, there wouldn't be this firestorm. And Guillen is a smart enough guy to know better.
I don't have a problem with his statements or even Castro for that matter. But from a PR standpoint there couldn't have been a dumber, more ill-conceived thing to say in the south Florida community. The Marlins will probably have to end up firing him to save face. They will probably give him a short leash and fire him for "baseball reasons" the second things go wrong on the field for an extended period of time.
Not sure what you are trying to make of this. are you saying that MLB players have something to do with this controversy? It just seems like that came out of left field (pun intended). Heck, if you did that same poll on pro soccer players, the percentage would be in single digits.
and Cuba didn't become what Cuba is today without the US-imposed sanctions either. can't blame all of that on Castro. I find it amazing that the US reconciled with communist China under Nixon in the 70s, and has raprochmant with the USSR in the 80s, yet Cuba is still on the outs as far as the US in concerned. it makes no sense - unless you look at the ex-pat community. I guess the Castros will have to die before the ex-pat community will allow the US to reconcile with Cuba.
I understand why the Marlins did what they did and they have every right to do so, but surely I wasn't the only one who saw the irony in what happened: Ozzie Guillen was punished for expressing what was rattling around in his head about Fidel Castro. Maybe this is why I'm not in public relations, but had I been running the Marlins, I would've put out a press release that said, in effect, "This is America, and Ozzie Guillen is free to say whatever he wants about Fidel Castro, no matter how much we disagree with it and find it to be ridiculous in the extreme." But instead, they decided to preemptively placate a community that has been so focused for so long on how much they hate Fidel Castro that they don't even realize how similar they've become to him.
I guess the point I was trying to make that MLB players are hardly the intellectual types, so we shouldn't make a huge deal of the stupid things they say when they're talking about anything outside of baseball.
Zionists and Florida Cubans. You'd think there would be a whole lot more of them than there actually are given how much ability they have to suppress speach in this country.
That's not what he said. He is making the point that you can't say anything deemed homophobic or something that is seen to be as supporting Castro in any way. The two were not related.
or they could have put out a disclaimer and said the Ozzie was speaking as a private citizen and not a representative of the organization when he made those remarks. that as a private citizen, Ozzie is entitled to his opinions. it's kind of hard to make that argument though and win that PR battle for public figures - especially when you consider the extreme (and in my mind irrational) feelings Cuban ex-pats have about Castro.
Operative phrase: "two things". Being homophobic is a no-no if you want to appeal to the Miami business community. Saying anything nice is the same for the Cuban exile community.
But Guillen isn't a player - he's a manager. Expectations on him to represent the franchise are much higher. Also, Guillen likes to play the press. His whole schtick is about saying outrageous things, and it bit him in the ass. I don't know if I would've suspended him for 5 games, but it certainly wasn't unreasonable, considering the pains the Marlins are taking to reach out to Little Havana.
Well then I have to say that's totally unfair. If that's the standard, then pretty much no athletes should speak about anything outside of their own sport. As I pointed out earlier, pro soccer players would be in single digits in terms of owning college degrees. Should all professional players of sport just be expected to shut up and kick/throw/hit/pass/shoot the ball/puck?
This is true. The grudge the US is holding against Cuba is irrational given our relations with China and Vietnam - another country the US "lost to communism" along with losing 50,000+ lives in the process. Part of it is the voice of the ex-pat community, the other part of it is humiliation that the US hasn't been able to control the politics of a country in it's own backyard. I'm sure the blockade is also intended to ensure that their system doesn't succeed (not that it necessarily would have without a blockade, just an additional measure).
But it's a poor end. There have been many 2nd term presidents who had nothing to lose by stepping up and making something happen. And they have all failed to even attempt to do so. While that voting bloc prevents south florida politicians from doing certain things and senators/governors of florida from doing certain things, it hasn't been what stops a 2nd term president and the rest of the country of reps/sens from stepping up to the plate (and we've had 3 of the aforementioned 2nd terms presidents in the 25 years). It's utterly ridiculous at this point.