The Marlins wanted a chance to start over. But that’s what they were supposed to be doing with a brand new stadium, redesigned uniforms and a roster full of pricey free agents, all meant to help cause a stir and create a scene where there had never been one for Major League Baseball before. One week into the season, they’re going to have to start over again, and this time it needs to be a door-to-door reconciliation with a Cuban community outraged by manager Ozzie Guillen’s absurd yet unconscionable praise for Fidel Castro.
Recommended Stories
“I’m on my knees,” pleaded Guillen during a news conference on Tuesday in which his contrition couldn’t have been more genuine. Clearly the outspoken manager even surprised himself with his ability to offend not just a reporter or a player — as he’s done in the past — but an entire population, the very one that calls the same place home as he does.
Ironically, it’s Guillen’s personality that the Marlins expected to be the spark to help turn a lifeless franchise into the talk of the town. Predicting that Guillen would’ve been suspended for five games some time during the season wasn’t unreasonable or necessarily undesirable.
No one could’ve predicted that it would be for remarks that would stoke the ever-burning political and emotional firestorm that defines South Florida as much as the tropical weather.
That said, with Castro’s legacy a constant, Guillen was always destined to face questions about the dictator. Had Guillen responded not with his first comment, “I love Fidel Castro,” but with his second quote alone — “A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that [expletive] is still there,” — perhaps he’d be celebrated. At the very least, the leap might have been to a discussion about Guillen’s own polarizing and defying presence.
Instead, he will learn the hard way about the worst thing he could’ve said in the worst place he could’ve said it. And when the discipline is done, the best chance to make it right will be while still wearing his Marlins cap.
If nothing else, there isn’t a soul in Little Havana who doesn’t know about the Marlins now. Guillen got their attention; the franchise has lots of work in store if it is going to keep it.
– Craig Stouffer
