A Little Too True

This is a repost from my sports column. Since the column was about something larger than sports, I decided to post it here too.

Ozzie Guillen did it again.

Ozzie went on a rant Tuesday in which he called Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti a fag.

I agree, along with the majority of Chicagoans who read Mariotti's column, with what Ozzie was saying about Mariotti. He is an ass. He is a moron.

The man flip flops on issues like a porn star on a mattress. He never has anything good to say about anything going on in Chicago sports.

When the White Sox are winning it's, "They're a great team, but Reinsdorf or Guillen, or even TV play by play announcer Hawk Harrellson are idiots."

Ya the Bulls made the playoffs, but Tyson Chandler is a joke and John Paxson was a fool to give him such a large contract.

He conveniently glances over all the good things that go on in this city and points out the one bad thing.

Three years ago it was all "The Cubs need Dusty Baker!" Now it's "Dusty Baker is an idiot and everybody who hired him should lose their job."

It's a surprise that Mariotti doesn't need a bodyguard surrounding him at all times. When you read letters to the editor in Sunday editions of the Sun-Times, about 95% of the feedback is "Mariotti you're an idiot. STFU."

So really Ozzie said absolutely nothing that the majority of this town has said to themselves while reading Mariotti's column. The problem is Ozzie said it in a very public setting.

He is the manager of the defending World Champion White Sox. He represents the organization, and the city of Chicago. The world is not a baseball clubhouse. It's really quite the opposite.

There is freedom of speech, so Ozzie can say whatever the hell he wants, but at the same time he has to accept the consequences of his words.

He should be suspended this time.

...and the guy says, "Rectum!? It damn near killed him!!"

He made similiar remarks last season in a press conference. They were jesting remarks made to a couple friendly reporters, so there wasn't a lot of noise about it. (Well of course Mariotti wrote a column on it.)

Whether or not the word fag has different connotations in his homeland of Venezuela is besides the point. He has lived in the United States long enough to know what the word implies here. He's also been here long enough, and has had to take enough abuse from, the incredibly PC atmosphere here in the United States.

A suspension and a fine may just be the thing that needs to be done to drive that point home to Guillen.

The biggest crime of this whole thing is that the White Sox are playing their best baseball over the last 10 days since their 12-1 run through the postseason last year, but all the attention will be on Ozzie and what he might possibly say.

He's a brilliant manager, whether he wants to admit it or not. He was a huge factor in the White Sox winning their first World Series in 88 years last season, whether he wants to take any credit for it or not.

This time though he's gonna have to take the credit for what he said, and accept his punishment.

Whether we agree with him wholeheartedly or not.