UPDATE: Ozzie Guillen suspended five games

The customers who actually support the business with their hard-earned money is the answer that you are searching for.

 

No, I only just returned.

 

I've defended Guillen here, in some ways, because I don't think that he's malicious. I think he's trying to be funny or contrarian.

That said ... I think that some who think this is political correctness run amok have a fundamental lack of understanding of why this is a big deal for Marlins management. I think this is because most of us have spent either the entirety of our careers or a good portion of our careers as journalists.

We're not bean counters. We put principle over profit, God bless us. And we don't understand why a team's front office would cave to a pack of rabid fans, because that's not how we're wired. That's selling out.

But it's also the way that businesses work. I can understand looking at their actions and thinking, "I would never, ever want to have to do that." But you also have to try to see the self-preservation angle. It's a business.

Now you may find that distasteful or in opposition to your values. But at least try to understand that's what's going on, not necessarily "political correctness run amok." And, once you get that, if you want to rip their ass for selling out, have at it.

But remember that there are consequences, particularly for a franchise that has never drawn particularly well to begin with. And if you're running things there, you have to be willing to deal with those consequences as a result of your principled stand.

 

This isn't political corectness run amok. Guillen can say whatever he wants. But the Marlins are a business, and Guillen just offended a large part of their fan base and they felt it necessary to send a message. Fine.

 

It's still a form of political correctness. Team management, fearful of some boycott or whatever, doesn't want to rub customers in a wrong way. So they censor their employees. I get that, even if I don't agree with them.

What if a player said the same things? Would the union defend them?

We are rapidly getting to a point where no one can saying that might possibly offend someone, somewhere.

Oh, gee, now some Miami Herald columnist compared Fidel Castro to the devil, live on CNN. And that's OK?

 

Someone needs to take the Marlins front office to task, if they haven't already.

I remember a few years ago, when Notre Dame hired and then fired George O'Leary, it rightly caught a ton of heat for not verifying his resume.

For years now Guillen had quotes out there, in the open, about Castro that were no different from what he said this week. He and the Marlins carried on a two-year flirtation leading up to his hire. This is a guy who clearly could have said something in the past that might blow up in their faces, and obviously they were too smitten to take a long look. Google is your friend.

 

Before this week, you could have done a Google search for "Ozzie Guillen controversy" and the Castro stuff wouldn't appear until page 56.

 

Two years, though.

Two years.

 

"Say what you will about boots, but he always had my back," said new SportsJournalists.com moderator Ozzie Guillen.

 

For those blasting the Marlins, I expect those to also blast the moderators on this site for banning people for what they post. Sound fair?

 

Zinger.

 

He had already said the same thing, out in the open, a couple years before. It was right there for them.