White Sox's Guillen uses homosexual slur

[BERIGAN]

Between his ranting at a young pitcher for not hitting a batter(Randy Johnson gets suspended for barely hitting a player, Guillen as far as I know didn't get a fine or suspended)and his really stupid mouth, I hope he will soon be out of his job in Chicago. Won't happen this year, but if they have a slow start next year....

White Sox's Guillen uses homosexual slur

Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen recently used a homosexual slur to describe a Chicago Sun-Times columnist.

The newspaper published a column Wednesday, and it ripped the outspoken skipper for his angry outburst directed at Jay Mariotti, who was covering Game 6 of the NBA Finals and obviously was not around to hear the comments prior to the White Sox's blowout victory over the Cardinals on Tuesday night.

"What a piece of (expletive) he is, (expletive) fag,'' Guillen said.

Guillen was given a chance to explain himself after the game.

"I don't have anything against those people. In my country, you call someone something like that and it is not the same as it is in this country,'' he said.

According to the Sun-Times Guillen explained that in his native Venezuela, the word in question is not used to describe a person's sexuality, rather his courage.

Guillen apparently said Mariotti "is not man enough to meet me and (talk about things before writing.)"

As you might expect, the White Sox were quick to apologize for the remark, which the defensive Guillen used in response to a Mariotti column about how the club dealt with rookie pitcher Sean Tracey after he recently refused to throw at the Rangers' Hank Blalock.

The White Sox claim — again according to the Sun-Times — they are "working with" Guillen on how he speaks publicly.

But it seems clear that Guillen has a developing penchant for talking inappropriately.

The Sun-Times points out that Guillen ripped into a Venezuelan reporter earlier this year for claiming that White Sox's pitcher Freddy Garcia had failed a marijuana test during the World Baseball Classic.

"It's a good thing that happened to Freddy and not to Ozzie Guillen because that man's going to be in big trouble,'' Guillen reportedly said. ''I will fly to Venezuela and kick his (backside) ... In Venezuela, we don't care. We take care of (stuff) by hitting people."

In New York last season, Guillen referred to someone as a homosexual and a child molester.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5716942

[jazzypaul]

As long as he wins games, man. Don't diss my boy. Christina and I actually made a Christmas Tree angel out of an Ozzie Guillen bobblehead. He might go over the line, well, all the time, but he sure makes this White Sox fan happy doing it.

[Larry Kart]

It needs to be said that the columnist Guillen went off on, Jay Mariotti, is about on the level of Ann Coulter -- a professional weasel. Moreover, one of Mariotti's "greatest hits" so to speak, was his dubbing Frank Thomas "The Big Skirt," after Thomas ("The Big Hurt") was tagged out at the plate when he slid in to a Cleveland Indians catcher rather than trying to bowl him over. Having come up with this nickname for Thomas, Mariotti repeated it in print over and over, with great relish. Also, as Rick Morrisey's column in the Chicago Tribune today suggests, Mariotti is pretty much regarded with contempt by his sports columnist colleagues because, while he does attend games, he makes it a policy never to venture into a clubhouse or a dugout where anyone he's slammed might be present and be prepared to complain about or contest what he has written.

[Dan Gould]

Anyone who has had the misfortune of seeing Mariotti on "Around the Horn" can tell what kind of an obnoxious putz he is.

[sheldonm]

...Im sure this doesn't justify calling him "fag"???? At least do it to the guy's face, up close and personal with no cameras/mics around~

m~

[Dan Gould]

...Im sure this doesn't justify calling him "fag"???? At least do it to the guy's face, up close and personal with no cameras/mics around~

m~

That's certainly true. I meant to refer to this ESPN column, which gives a fine perspective on both Guillen and Mariotti:

Ozzie-being-Ozzie days can't go on any more

By Gene Wojciechowski

Ozzie Guillen is a *!%#% homophobic Venezuelan creep who ought to have his U.S. citizenship revoked.

Oh, wait. I didn't mean it like that. I mean, I did, but I shouldn't have used some of those words. Instead, I should have used other humiliating, demeaning words.

In the Chicago suburb where I have lived for many years, those words mean different things, but that's not an excuse. After all, I have Venezuelan friends, go to Cubs games when Carlos Zambrano pitches, and have long insisted that Venezuela is the prettiest dirt-poor country in South America.

Oh, boy, did I say, "dirt poor?'' If I hurt anybody by saying, "dirt poor,'' I apologize.

Of course, ESPN can do whatever they want to me, but I'm not going to back off on Ozzie. He's a piece of #&%!

See where I'm going with this? This is the Ozzie Guillen School of Public Relations. He first unleashes a macho rip-job, such as his most recent cleats-in-mouth moment (calling Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Jay Mariotti "a fag''), and then, as the mushroom cloud once again envelops the White Sox manager, he issues an apology, but almost always with an asterisk attached.

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.

In a bizarre attempt to somehow justify his homophobic comments directed at Mariotti, Guillen said he has gay friends, attends the Gay Games, WNBA games, and Madonna concerts. This would be like Guillen making a crack about Jews, but saying it was OK, since Jerry Reinsdorf is the owner of the White Sox.

Guillen wants it both ways. He's all for free speech, but only if he's the one delivering the speeches. He can be clever, engaging, emotional, profound, funny, and perceptive. He also can be crass, crude, vindictive, petty, defiant and in serious need of a mute button. He is Charles Barkley in a dugout.

But this isn't simply about Guillen inching closer to suspension or, eventually, dismissal, because he keeps breaking PC law. This is about something more subtle and basic, at least, as it concerns managers, big league ballplayers and the media.

In the Byzantine world of baseball, where there are more DaVinci codes and unwritten rules than any sport I've ever covered, Mariotti violated one of the cornerstone understandings of the game. It started after Mariotti ripped, as did others, Guillen for going postal after rookie Sox pitcher Sean Tracey failed to bean Texas Rangers star Hank Blalock during a recent game. You've probably seen Guillen's June 14 tirade and, if not, it's just as well. Guillen made an idiot of himself.

But what helped prompt Tuesday's "fag'' comment was Mariotti's continued boycott of the White Sox clubhouse before and after games. Mariotti has said he was physically threatened by unnamed -- and since departed -- Sox personnel in the past. He told Chicago's WSCR-AM 670 that he won't enter the clubhouse until the White Sox devise a "professional standard for how they deal with me.''

I'm not sure what that means, but then again I've never been physically threatened by any White Sox player. As a baseball beat reporter I've been screamed at, mocked, berated and, yeah, twice threatened because of something I wrote. It happens.

The general rule of baseball thumb is this: If you rip a player or manager in print, then you've got to give that player or manager the opportunity to rip back the next time he sees you.

One of Guillen's problems with Mariotti is this: He never sees him.

This is Old School we're talking about here, and Guillen is one of its graduate students. To him, this is a black-white/right-wrong issue. If Guillen thinks you jobbed him, then he wants to say so in person. He might f-bomb you. You might yell back. You agree to disagree. Hands are shaken. That sort of thing.

Not this time. Guillen and Mariotti are like India and Pakistan -- mortal enemies.

The problem, as usual, with Guillen, is that he confuses cultures on occasion. He forgets he lives in the States, and that we didn't live in Venezuela. Sometimes we don't get him, and he doesn't get us, even though he became a U.S. citizen this past January.

About 10 years ago, while working for the Chicago Tribune, I wrote a clumsily conceived column about a make-believe Indian taxi driver trying to convince Minnesota Timberwolves star Kevin Garnett to sign with the Bulls. What I thought was "The Simpsons"-like humor was considered ethnic stereotyping by others.

I learned an assortment of lessons from that experience, not the least of which was that one person's one-liner is another person's bruise mark.

Guillen needs a similar lesson, and perhaps his Major League Baseball-imposed sensitivity training and fine will provide it. Here's guessing Guillen will write the check, but he won't be sitting at the front of the room when sensitivity classes begin.

Bud Selig had to do something about Guillen's remarks. Guillen didn't give the commish any choice.

Two seasons ago I saw Guillen take a seat on the dugout bench, only to discover he was sitting on a local newspaper, with the page opened to the mug shot of a female columnist. Guillen cracked wise about the location of his rear end and her mug shot. I remember wincing. There were a few forced chuckles, but nobody wrote about it. Hey, it was Ozzie being Ozzie.

Sorry, those days are over. If they aren't, Guillen's reign as White Sox manager will be.

[GA Russell]

I find this odd, if I understand the situation correctly.

Guillen is not being held to account by Management for suggesting that a sportswriter is a homosexual. He is being reprimanded for offending homosexuals by using the word "fag".

Do I have that right?

[Chuck Nessa]

I find this odd, if I understand the situation correctly.

Guillen is not being held to account by Management for suggesting that a sportswriter is a homosexual. He is being reprimanded for offending homosexuals by using the word "fag".

Do I have that right?

Correct. Nobody wants to look like they are on Mariotti's side.

[Larry Kart]

Sheldon M. writes:

"..Im sure this doesn't justify calling him "fag"???? At least do it to the guy's face, up close and personal with no cameras/mics around~"

But Mariotti makes sure that he is never around where Guillen or anyone else he attacks is.

GA Russell writes:

"Guillen is not being held to account by Management for suggesting that a sportswriter is a homosexual. He is being reprimanded for offending homosexuals by using the word "fag".

Do I have that right?"

Yes. But Guillen -- himself a professional hothead, of course -- didn't mean by calling Mariotti a "******* fag" that Mariotti actually was a homosexual; he meant that he was not "a manly man." Bad enough, perhaps, but on that point see my response to Sheldon M. above.

[Noj]

Does anyone really expect political correctness in a dugout? I don't think Guillen knows how to separate the real world from the dugout.

Sportswriters like Mariotti go over the top and insult ballplayers/coaches, then cry when shit gets slung back at them. Waaaaaahhh!

[Johnny E]

I like Guillen.

[Sundog]

These guys have had an ongoing feud. Jay Mariotti is a "button-pusher" and all around asshole; and Ozzie is a relatively easy target for Mariotti to "F" with. It's what he does, it's all he knows how to do. He has absolutely no insight whatsoever as a writer.

[RDK]

David Letterman last night suggested that the new PC-term for a homosexual should be "cowboy."

[Soulstation1]

Ozzie's not sensitive enough..

[Dave James]

A tempest in a politically correct teapot. Can someone make this go away?

Up over and out.

[sheldonm]

Sheldon M. writes:

"..Im sure this doesn't justify calling him "fag"???? At least do it to the guy's face, up close and personal with no cameras/mics around~"

But Mariotti makes sure that he is never around where Guillen or anyone else he attacks is.

GA Russell writes:

"Guillen is not being held to account by Management for suggesting that a sportswriter is a homosexual. He is being reprimanded for offending homosexuals by using the word "fag".

Do I have that right?"

Yes. But Guillen -- himself a professional hothead, of course -- didn't mean by calling Mariotti a "******* fag" that Mariotti actually was a homosexual; he meant that he was not "a manly man." Bad enough, perhaps, but on that point see my response to Sheldon M. above.

Larry,

I understand that he doesn't come around, just pointing out if this is the case, better to not say anything....especially if there are cameras/mics around.....Ozzie was an idiot in this case.....Mariotti appears to be an idiot as well.

m~

[BERIGAN]

I thought Guillen was a breath of fresh air...at first....his latest B.S.

Sensitive issue: Testy Guillen wants English training

By Enrique Rojas

ESPNdeportes.com

CHICAGO -- Ozzie Guillen doesn't know what a sensitivity course is about, and he doubts he'll ever attend one, even though commissioner Bud Selig ordered the Chicago White Sox manager to attend sensitivity training and fined him an undisclosed amount of money as punishment for his derogatory remarks to journalist Jay Mariotti.

"I don't think I'll be going, I don't think that'll happen," Guillen told ESPNdeportes.com in an interview at U.S. Cellular Field on Friday. The interview was conducted in Spanish.

"I think the commissioner ordered that in order to calm things down, but, obviously, to attend one of those, I'll have to take English lessons first," he added.

Guillen called Mariotti an offensive word, often used to refer to people's sexual preference.

Mariotti is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and appears on ESPN's "Around The Horn."

"I'll do what I have to do, at least when I have time, but I don't think I'll take those sensitivity lessons," Guillen said.

"I want to make it clear that I left school a long time ago and that I learned English in the streets. I have three boys at school and I am too old to return to a classroom," he said.

When asked about his comments after the game, Guillen responded with a lengthy diatribe in which he said he first needs to take English classes "to understand what they're talking about" and threatened to "start being nasty with the media" if they continued to ask questions about that.

"It's a really uncomfortable situation for me," Guillen said. "I don't need this job. It's hard everyday. ... If someone tries to play games, I'm sorry, but you've got the wrong guy."

Guillen got up and walked out of the interview room. A few minutes later, he said through a team spokesman he will undergo the training.

The White Sox, who were a half-game behind Detroit in the AL Central, won the opener of a three-game series against the Houston Astros, 7-4 on Friday. They defeated the Astros last October to win the World Series for the first time since 1917.

While White Sox players practiced peacefully, Guillen answered dozens of questions from journalists.

Could it be that Guillen is always caught up in some kind of conflict as a tactic to take pressure off his players?

"I don't think that way, but it has turned out pretty good. In a way, things have turned out like that," Guillen said.

"I've obviously been in Chicago longer than these guys. I've been in this organization and in this city for 17 years and I know better than them how things are handled around here," he added. "I'd rather they talked about me and not about one of them."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2498795

[alocispepraluger102]

just a word about jay.

i remember jay as a morning radio host on sporting news radio. i thought him to be very thoughtful, measured, and literate.

he was on the air, as i recall the morning of 9-11-01. i respect him.

a few years later, i came across jay on one of those abominable sports shows on espn where people's jobs are to yell at each other.

the old jay was replaced by loudness and bombast.

i presumed that jay was just doing what he had to do to make a living, and this may still be the case.

i miss very much the old jay.

as for ozzie, whom i also like, only a miracle can save him.........

Edited June 25, 2006 by alocispepraluger102