Ozzie continues to be Ozzie. He’s a manager of the likes nobody has seen in quite a while. A manager with simply no regard for authority who thinks the baseball world somehow revolves around him. A manager who continues to press the button with Bud Selig and the league office and, as ESPN columninst Gene Wojciechowski writes, is a manager who needs to change, and change fast.
The Guillen old dependables: He was kidding … He said this, but he meant that … In his native Venezuela, (insert slur) has a different definition … Some of his best friends are (insert offended group) … He’s sorry.
The schtick isn’t working anymore. It’s like watching somebody learn how to drive a stick shift. All you hear are gears grinding. All you see is the car lurching forward and backward.
Guillen continues to live in the past with the outlandish way he chooses to manage his team. Ordering your rookie pitcher to intentionally hit a batter, and sending him back to the minors when he doesn’t? The way baseball used to be, retaliation was part of the game and when a pitcher hit your player, it was acceptable to dot one of the opposing batters the following inning. That’s the way baseball worked back in the day, but Ozzie has forgotten that it’s not the same anymore. Umpires these days are much more protective of players and won’t allow bean fests to take place anymore.
As for Guillen calling Mariotti a derogatory slur over his newspaper columns, that’s just unacceptable. Bud Selig can fine him and give him sensitivity training all he wants but do you really think that’s going to stop Ozzie from being Ozzie? He needs to be punished and perhaps the only way to get through to Guillen is by issuing a lengthy suspension. His antics have gone on long enough and it’s time for Major League Baseball to step in, lay down the law, and tame this wild beast. Guillen needs to look around and realize that he isn’t in Venezuela anymore. Start respecting the country you claim to be a citizen of.
