yeah, I don't disagree with your point. I think the suspension by the Marlins was warranted, given their fan base. and I know Ozzie's penchant for saying silly things. my issue with the matter is the media circus and how they're blowing it out of proportion, including calling for an apology to America!! or firing him. that's ridiculous.
I'm not saying they shouldn't speak about non-sports related matters. what I'm saying is that we, and the media shouldn't take them too seriously when they do - especially when they say things that are ignorant and stupid. it shouldn't be a reason for a media firestorm.
I personally don't. but I also don't have a problem with the organization suspending him for 5 games for business reasons. as a public figure, when he speaks to the media or in other public forums, he represents the organization. so I don't have a problem with the organization punishing him for putting the organization in a bad light. but the media firestorm is ridiculous.
and I can see that being a valid geo-political strategic reason during the Cold War, when the West was in a real ideological battle with Communism. but in 2012?? come on! hasn't Capitalism triumphed?? Jim Rome has this saying that in life, sex is undefeated. I agree, and I would add another. in life, there are two things undefeated - sex, and money. Communism has failed. do we really need to continue the irrational policy with Cuba?
So true. As The Economist editorialized last month, the US's policies towards Cuba amount to a "50 year tantrum".
Oh I don't really care, it's just strange seeing somebody caring about what Ozzie says. We never did that in Chicago.
If you need any help hating the Miami Cubans, their organized riots helped disrupt the recount in 2000.
What's even worse is that it is a 50 year tantrum thrown by a tiny group of voters who happen to live in the most fickle of swing states. If that isn't a good argument for National Popular Vote, I don't know what is.
Boy howdy. Seriously, who really give a crap what any sporting figure thinks about anything. I don't care if Tim Thomas is a militia member starter kit. And I don't care if Ozzie Guillen wants to be Fidel's new BFF -- which he apparently doesn't, but if he did, I wouldn't care.
You don't care, but the Miami Cubans do. And for better or worse, Guillen is a public face of the Miami Marlins franchise. And the Marlins certainly care about what the local public thinks, considering they kinda lied to get public financing for their stadium and no one's ever really liked the team to begin with.
Only the people who have a vested interest in bodies coming thru the turnstiles. Other than that, yea....WGAF. I live in the DC area and watch EVERY year as the Redskins and Dan Snyder do everything wrong in how to run a franchise. The big difference being that people here are crazy nuts for the Redskins are are willing to turn a blind eye regardless of the clown show Dan Snyder puts on every year.
Oh yeah, sure, I get all that. But you know, it's yet another reason why I think that the Cuban exiles in south Florida aren't that much fabulously better than the guy that they think is the Worst Person In The World.
the ex-pat Cuban community acts like they're the only ones who've ever fled a country because of a brutal dictator. like they're the only ones who've ever been dispossessed of their property or had to leave their old lives before as a result of a regime change. I mean seriously, get over it. they are part of the problem, not the solution. they are part of the reason why the US has not normalized relations with Cuba, and why Cuba is in the sorry economic and political shape it's in. if relations with Cuba were normalized, it would only be a matter of time before the resulting economic prosperity would create regime change (or at least regime softening) as well. their blind, irrational hatred of Castro is too much to stomach. and as has been suggested, because they live in a key swing state, they get a political voice that is completely disproportionate to their numbers.
Yep, consider the Baltics who fled Stalin. My wife's great-uncle was put in hard labor in Siberia for the crime of having served in the cabinet of a democratic country, and was shot for asking for a second bowl of soup. There were probably 1,000 Baltics killed by Stalin for every Cuban killed by Castro.
my own family (I was 11 then, so can't really claim any credit) fled Ceausescu's regime in 88. the examples like that abound throughout the world in every region. I think the fact that Castro is still alive and in power irks them, and makes them resentful of him. they take it personally. but still...
Well, the Marlins have a shitty product to begin with -baseball- and for whatever reason Cubans seem to like that product. So, as I see it, the team was trying to market itself to Cubans in the area. Then the manager -a drunk who was probably hired in a cynical attempt to try to appeal to the Latinos to begin with- should not say anything positive about Castro, because most of the Cubans in Miami see themselves as victims of Castro -or else they are the children of those who see themselves as victims of Castro, and probably grew up hearing horror stories about Castro from their parents and grandparents. The moral of the story: If you have a shitty boring sport, you should not piss off the one niche group that actually might care about that sport.
No need to trash an entire sport especially one that is BIG to many carribean nations. We hate it when futbol gets trashed here so there is that understanding. Just sayin'.....
I wouldn't call hiring Guillen to be a cynical move, he's a World Series winning manager. Secondly, your bashing of the sport of baseball is unnecessary and irrelevant to the topic in this thread, nor is it an appropriate characteristic of a moderator.