Should ozzie guillen have been suspended for his remarks about Castro?

Story http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7795152/ozzie-guillen-miami-marlins-suspended-five-games

Spoiler

MIAMI -- The Miami Marlins have suspended manager Ozzie Guillen for five games for comments he made in which he expressed admiration for Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

"The Marlins acknowledge the seriousness of the comments attributed to Guillen," the team said in a prepared statement announcing the move. "The pain and suffering caused by Fidel Castro cannot be minimized especially in a community filled with victims of the dictatorship."

Marlins bench coach Joey Cora will be the interim manager during the suspension.
ESPN Radio on Ozzie Guillen

Speaking first in Spanish on Tuesday morning in Miami, Guillen apologized to the city, its Cuban-American community and all Latin Americans for the comments, which were published on Time magazine's website last week.

"I feel like I betrayed my Latin community," Guillen said, according to ESPN's translation of his comments in Spanish. "I am here to say I am sorry with my heart in my hands and I want to say I'm sorry to all those people who are hurt indirectly or directly."
"I'm sorry for what I said and for putting people in a position they don't need to be in. And for all the Cuban families, I'm sorry," he said, according to ESPN's translation. "I hope that when I get out of here, they will understand who Ozzie Guillen is. How I feel for them. And how I feel about the Fidel Castro dictatorship. I'm here to face you, person to person. It's going to be a very difficult time for me."
In a prepared statement, baseball commissioner Bud Selig said MLB supported the suspension. He said baseball as an institution has "important social responsibilities," and he expects those representing the game to show respect and sensitivity to its many cultures.

Protesters outside Marlins Park ripped up a copy of the Marlins' logo on Tuesday.
"Guillen's remarks, which were offensive to an important part of the Miami community and others throughout the world, have no place in our game," Selig said.

Guillen told Time magazine for an article published last week that he loves Castro and respects him for staying in power for so long.
On Tuesday, Guillen said repeatedly that he does not admire Castro. He said when the comments were made, he was talking about how he was surprised Castro was able to remain in power so long, given the number of people he had hurt since taking power.

"The interpretation didn't come out as I wanted," Guillen said in Spanish, according to ESPN's translation. "I was thinking in Spanish and I said the wrong thing in English."
Asked how the statement "I love Fidel Castro" could be misconstrued, Guillen once again said he was talking about how surprised he was that Castrol had been able to stay in power for so long.
"Everybody in the world hates Fidel Castro, including myself," Guillen said. "I was surprised that he's still in power. That's what I was trying to say to the journalist. And that's the first thing that came out of my mouth. I admit it. It was the wrong words."
A Cuban-American advocacy group in Miami, Vigilia Mambisa, has said it would boycott and demonstrate against Guillen until the Marlins fire him.

Outside an entrance to the Marlins' new ballpark, about 100 demonstrators wanting Guillen's ouster shouted and chanted during the news conference. The team didn't consider firing Guillen or asking him to resign, Marlins president David Samson said.
"We believe in him," Samson said. "We believe in his apology. We believe everybody deserves a second chance."
More from ESPN.com

Apologies and in-the-flesh explanations aside, the oft-outspoken Ozzie Guillen faces a tough road for him to recover from his favorable comments about Fidel Castro, writes Jayson Stark. Story

Israel Gutierrez came home to South Florida on Monday afternoon and woke up to the import of Ozzie Guillen's insensitive comments about Fidel Castro. Story

After the comment was published, the Marlins subsequently issued a statement clarifying that the organization has no respect for Castro, calling him "a brutal dictator who has caused unthinkable pain for more than 50 years."
Tuesday, Guillen said he respected the Marlins' decision to suspend him and was not concerned about the salary he would lose in the process, because repairing his relationship with the Cuban-American community was more important.
"I will do everything to try to make things be better," he said. "I'm willing to do everything in my power, in the Marlins power, to do everything I can to help this community."
Speaking to a packed audience in the media room at Marlins Park, the team's brand-new stadium in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, Guillen remembered being in the ballpark for Opening Day and what a happy occasion that was. "Now, I'm sitting here a few days later very embarrassed. Very sad," he said.
"This is the biggest mistake of my life. When you make a mistake this big ... I will learn from this," he said.
Guillen said he was disappointed that he let his players down and asked that the team and the organization not be blamed for his mistake.
"I'll be back after five games. I just hope they do their job. What else can I say? Keep playing and I'm going to try to put this problem behind me," he said.
Guillen will be eligible to return from the suspension on Tuesday, April 17, when the Marlins host the Chicago Cubs.

Ozzie Guillen said he was on his knees to apologize to Miami's Cuban-American community for saying he admired Fidel Castro's ability to remain in power.
It's not the first time that Guillen has praised Castro publicly. In a Men's Journal interview in 2008, Guillen was asked to name the toughest man he knows.
"Fidel Castro," he said. "He's a bull---- dictator and everybody's against him, and he still survives, has power. Still has a country behind him. Everywhere he goes they roll out the red carpet. I don't admire his philosophy. I admire him."
Guillen, who is from Venezuela but became a United States citizen in 2006, also praised controversial Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in 2005. He had appeared on the leader's radio show twice and when asked about it, he said: "Not too many people like the president. I do."
Guillen has since been critical of Chavez. During his first news conference as Marlins manager in September, he bristled at a suggestion he supports Chavez.
"Don't tell my wife that, because she hates that man. She hates him to death," Guillen said. "I supported Chavez? If I was supporting Chavez, do you think I would be manager of the Marlins? I never supported Chavez."
Tuesday, Guillen, who is a U.S. citizen, was asked several times about Chavez. He said he doesn't support Chavez, who sees himself as a protege of Castro, and that he writes for a newspaper in Venezuela that is anti-Chavez. He also said he would not vote for Chavez.
"This is the last time this person talks about politics," he said, according to ESPN's translation.
Guillen's outspoken manner has gotten him into trouble in the past. In 2006, he was fined and ordered to undergo sensitivity training by Major League Baseball after using a gay slur during a rant aimed at a Chicago-area newspaper columnist.

 

That's an odd statement. Is that also true of Germans who divorce themselves from Hitler?

Those Cubans that have divorced themselves from him have done so because they believe he ruined their country.

 

I DISLIKE Ozzie. I think the White Sox should have fired him ages before they did and I think he kept and sometimes keeps getting one pass too many. He is a loudmouth that thinks he's wiser than he is as a baseball manager and person.
BUT
I kind of understand what he meant when he said that statement about Castro.
He appreciated that Castro somehow couldn't be overthrown despite the hatred for him.
BUT
maybe that statement would fly in Chicago but the IDIOT forgot he managed the Miami Marlins, based in Miami with a large Cuban population that hates Castro. To then say he respects Castro for his ability to withstand opposition is a slap in the face to those that the Marlins are trying to reach out to.
I feel no sympathy for the Marlins because they wanted that Ozzie attention and with that Ozzie attention comes stupid incidents and statements like this.

 

Dude are you high? I don't mean to insult but I'm just asking?
I mean one can appreciate Castro's ability to withstand opposition from those in his country and those outside but to say it is a shame that Cubans (who left the country because of his reign and methods of rule in the country) would divorce themselves from him makes one question wth you're thinking.

 

This is exactly right. This is like saying something good about Sherman's military tactics in Atlanta.

 

I think it's garbage and the only reason the Owner cares is because it's Miami.

I find Cuban's annoying. The parents of those protesting Cubans were the same folks who praised Castro when he ousted Batista with Che's help. He's managed to keep the country from becoming a democratic like Haiti all by himself. They've had to suffer for it unjustly but you think about how little and isolated that nation is and how they've managed to keep it up.

 

BS. The country was blackballed by the U.S. because they stood with the Soviets who actually respected Castro. The U.S. wanted to stomp out any notion of a successful Socialist society near them (a threat). USSR got caught up in the arms race and killed themselves thus leaving Cuba with no help. You mean to tell me that U.S. (who are now slaves to a communist nation) money wouldn't have flooded Cuba in terms or tourism alone in these last 60 years?

You want to talk about a Dictator? That was Batista.

 

Would I have suspended Ozzie? No.

Do I understand why the Marlins did? yes.

I just don't think it has anything to do with baseball. But the Marlins have an image to promote, and letting it slide could hurt that image. From a business standpoint for the Marlins, I understand it.

 

it's quite hilarious to see this unfold. First, the gm should be fired for hiring a loud Venezuelan to manage a team in florida. What could have possibly gone wrong?

Now the people protesting? they are a bunch of hypocrites. Cubans protest any time living la vida loca wants to give a concert in cuba so I'm not surprised they are going over board with this.
Castro is an atheist a hole that got a case of the ronald miller and turned his back on the revolution. But a certain political party that backs the cuban community in florida is notorious for supporting military regimes all across the americas. That same party didn't mind when china came in and helped out the United states economy with their investments.
it's all business.

Psshhhh fire everyone!

 

The Cubans here in the US don't appreciate what Castro did for their country - that's why they fled Cuba to come here in the first place. Why they feel that way or whether their feelings are justified is not really relevant to anything.

 

Nah, this is America.

 

I think Ozzie is a goner. He will never get past this in Miami, which is a pathetic baseball town to start with. Apathy will be replaced by unforgivable anger until he's gone. Totally irresponsible of him to say something like this while being a public figure down there.

For the record, I resent that Cuban-Americans in Florida have orchestrated the our Cuban policy for years and years. It's ridiculous things aren't further along.

 

Oh, God. This type of heinously misrepresented fact needs to stay in the D&D.

 

anybody think the cubans are overreacting? I mean everybody is entitled to their political opinion. It's not like Cubans have never ever had any sort of controversial politcal beliefs or racist beliefs, ever. Why are they spazzing the **** about this, they need to chill out. Suddenly everybody wants to give the Marlins heat when they never gave a **** to begin with.

 

Cuban missile Crisis ring a bell?

 

No. He shouldn't have been suspended. He didn't criticize David Stern or the referees for not calling a foul on us Rockets. Ooops, wrong, sport!