MLB should banish Guillen for the season

Beyond Golf — 10 April 2012 by Jim Street

Ozzie Guillen has gone too far this time, and he needs to be muffled. Forever. Get rid of him. Give him the Greg Williams treatment. Banish the buffoon from Major League Baseball for the remainder of the season.

The embattled Miami Marlins manager needed less than a week of the regular season to make a fool of himself –yet again – by telling Time magazine that he “loves Fidel Castro.”

Are you kidding me?

Why is this person allowed to be in a position of power? Why haven’t we heard from Commissioner Bud Selig? Talk about burying their head in the sand. These two people should be ashamed of themselves.

What Guillen (pictured) said about Castro, one of the most despicable human beings in the history of mankind, should not be tolerated by either the Miami Marlins or MLB. It’s as simple as that. Boot Guillen.

Guillen, facing criticism over comments published last week in which he expressed admiration for Castro, says will “discuss” his statements about the Cuban leader at a Tuesday news conference in Miami.

Guillen, speaking in the Marlins dugout before their afternoon game against the Phillieson Monday, said he felt “guilty” and “embarrassed” and wants to address questions personally. He plans to speak at a 7:30 a.m. PT news conference on Tuesday at Marlins Park.

Basically, Guillen got caught – again – with his tongue flapping.

Guillen told Time magazine for an article published last week that he loves Castro and respects him for staying in power so long.

Say what?

Only an idiot would say something like that and Guillen obviously is an idiot. Idiots should not be managing a MLB team. He should be kept as far away from sensible human beings as possible.

“I will apologize if I hurt somebody’s feelings, or I hurt somebody’s thought,” Guillen told writers on Saturday. “I want them to know I’m against everything 100 percent — I repeat it again — the way this man Castro) [has been] treating people for the last 60 years.”

If that’s the way he feels, he should have said it to Time magazine during the original interview, not a week after all hell broke loose when his words infuriated an entire nation, including a lot of Miami residents who fled Cuba because of Castro.

Don’t give me this stuff from Guillen, saying, “knowing I am 100 percent against…blah, blah, blah.”

Guillen said that when he read his comments on Friday, he “felt sick” because he knew how people would react.

Duh.

Guillen can plead ignorance (no one would question that) for his comments about Castro. But that isn’t the point. He said it because he believes it. Good, let him move to Havana, have all the cigars he wants and live happily ever-after in a communist country.

That is troublesome enough. But the Time article also quotes the moron as saying he went to the hotel bar after every game for the past 25 to 28 years and got drunk.

Hello?

Is this the kind of message we (including the Marlins and MLB) want sent to the youth of America. Play a game, and then get smashed. Gimme a break.

It’s time for the mouth from Venezuela to be silenced once and for all. The best thing the Marlins can do is buy a one-way ticket for Guillen to anyplace in Cuba he wants to live. Perhaps he could become Castro’s next-door neighbor. They seem to have a lot in common.

About Author

Jim Street

Jim’s 40-year sportswriting career started with the San Jose Mercury-News in 1970 and ended on a full-time basis on October 31, 2010 following a 10-year stint with MLB.com. He grew up in Dorris, Calif., several long drives from the nearest golf course. His first tee shot was a week before being inducted into the Army in 1968. Upon his return from Vietnam, where he was a war correspondent for the 9th Infantry Division, Jim took up golf semi-seriously while working for the Mercury-News and covered numerous tournaments, including the U.S. Open in 1982, when Tom Watson made the shot of his life on the 17th hole at Pebble Beach. Jim also covered several Bing Crosby Pro-Am tournaments, the women’s U.S. Open, and other golfing events in the San Francisco area. He has a 17-handicap, made his first and only hole-in-one on March 12, 2018 at Sand Point Country Club in Seattle and witnessed the first round Ken Griffey Jr. ever played – at Arizona State during Spring Training in 1990. Pebble Beach Golf Links, the Kapalua Plantation Course, Pinehurst No. 2, Spyglass Hill, Winged Foot, Torrey Pines, Medinah, Chambers Bay, North Berwick, Gleneagles and Castle Stuart in Scotland, and numerous gems in Hawaii are among the courses he has had the pleasure of playing. Hitting the ball down the middle of the fairway is not a strong part of Jim’s game, but he is known (in his own mind) as the best putter not on tour. Most of Jim’s writing career was spent covering Major League Baseball, a tenure that started with the Oakland Athletics, who won 101 games in 1971, and ended with the Seattle Mariners, who lost 101 games in 2010. Symmetry is a wonderful thing. He currently lives in Seattle and has an 8-year-old grandson, Andrew, who is the club's current junior champion at his home course (Oakmont CC) in Glendale, Calif.