Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Ditka's Defense of Guillen: Immigrants are Too Stupid

I like the White Sox. And while Ozzie Guillen is not the best coach and has made some questionable pitching changes in his career, he sure knows how to get the most out of his team on the field.

Still, there's no defense for his comments toward Sun-Times sports columnist Jay Mariotti, and after today's driveling interview with Mike Ditka in the Sun-Times, I have to agree with Moriotti's contention on Chicago Tonight (6/26) that the Sun-Times is not really backing it's staff up.

Is it news that Mike Ditka likes Ozzie Guillen? Only if it's news that Harry Caray liked Budweiser. What I did love was Ditka's defense of Guillen:

"He's down-to-earth, he's blue-collar and he's also also a product of Venezuela who has spent his life playing baseball and that's just who he is. So he probably still doesn't understand a lot of things in our country as well as he understands baseball. And let's be honest, this is the same problem players from the Dominican Republic and other countries have when they don't speak perfect English. There will be misunderstandings."
It's an interesting defense. First, by definition, there are no blue collar professional baseball players; these are guys that hire other people to walk the picket line for them when they go on strike. And even most blue collar folks I know realize that you don't run around calling journalists "fag" when you're the coach of a major sporting team.

Secondly, Ozzie Guillen has lived in the U.S. for over twenty years. He may be an immigrant, but he's not a moron, and I'm sure he's learned what the word "fag" means now, if he didn't already know when he got here.

Third, this was no "misunderstanding." This is only the latest insult by Guillen over a journalist's perceived sexual orientation, which included a locker room incident where Guillen, then a player and buck-naked at the time, walked up behind a guy and pretended to sodomize him from behind.

Illinois has come along way in ending discrimination. Both gubernatorial candidates support our current anti-discrimination laws and marched in this year's Pride Parade. An effort to enshrine the anti-gay American agenda in our Constitution is about to go down in flames. And new research is shedding light on the link between biology and gayness.

Despite all that, Jay Mariotti is slowly being squeezed out of his profession because of Guillen's bigoted views about his perceived sexuality, and Ditka's redneck defense of Guillen's redneck remarks is that Latino immigrants are to stupid to know what they are saying.

There ought to be a Constitutional Ban Against Stupid People.

18 comments:

Anonymous,  1:34 PM  
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous,  2:39 PM  

I like Ozzie, but I did not like the “fag” comment. You’re right; it was a redneck thing to say. If someone were to use one of those special words to describe Ozzie’s ethnicity, he would have come un-glued.

Are far as Ditka goes, what else did you expect? He’s a big, fat, blow-hard, when it comes to talking with the press. Typical Illinois Republican.

Go figure.

Anonymous,  2:52 PM  

Ozzie Guillen is great leave him alone

Yellow Dog Democrat 3:04 PM  

Anon 1:34 - Just the kind of comment I'd expect from a Guillen supporter. The problem isn't that Guillen is a professional athlete, it's that he's anything but a professional and talks like a prejudiced, small-minded bigot.

That's why, as Mariotti points out, he doesn't have this problem with the Bears, Bulls, Cubs, or any other athletes.

And let's keep in mind that Guillen plays baseball in a stadium that was 100% financed by public tax dollars, including alot of people who will be visiting Chicago for the Gay Games. If Guillen hates gay Americans so much, he needs to stop being such a hypocrite and go collect his paycheck somewhere else.

Anonymous,  3:11 PM  

The only people who got their undies in a bunch over this matter were the whiny sports columnists...you know, the guys not good enough at sports that they decided to attack professional athletes through their columns.

This whole issue was overblown (no, that's not a dig at Mariotti).

Anyway, this post was lame. Usually I'm a fan of YDD, but he's turning into Bill Barr when it comes to posting, too bad.

Anonymous,  3:13 PM  

Oh yeah, what evidence is there that Mariotti is being squeezed out of his profession??? and you must be joking that it's the result of what Ozzie said...talk about ignorant.

Jay was on ESPN yesterday, that's not a bad career move.

Have you ever read a Mariotti column? Maybe you should, then you'll see why no one likes him...he's the Skeeter of the sports world (hee, hee)

Anonymous,  3:34 PM  

“A fan of YDD.” Does such a thing exist?

Yellow Dog Democrat 3:41 PM  

Actually, I have read Mariotti from time-to-time, and it's kind of nice to read something from a sports opinion writer that isn't intended to prop up the home team.

As taxpayers, we're all shareholders in publicly-financed teams like the White Sox and Bears. Like all shareholders, we need hard analysis about how our investment is being managed. When it's being managed well and the frontline workers are earning their paycheck, the sportwriters' analysis should tell us that. When they're not, they should tell us that, too.

Anonymous,  4:56 PM  

Let me get this right: Ozzie does not like homosexuals.
Ditka doesn't think people with brown skin are intelligent.
A boring blowhard sports reporter has thin skin.
This is news? Why don't you ask the real question that we all need answered: What does Britanny Spears s think of this mess?

In all seriousnesss, what possible difference does this story make?

Homosexuals and liberals need to lighten up. There is a difference between being denied a job or a mortgage because of whom you date, and having a baseball manager use a bad name.

Don't like it? Great. Don't go to the ballpark. But stop acting as if the rest of us should care.

Anonymous,  6:05 PM  
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Yellow Dog Democrat 7:11 PM  

Skeeter:

Last I recall, you were defending Burt Natarus for refering to a reporter as a "pussy,"

This is not just an issue for baseball fans. Guillen works for a company that received over $160 million in public financing, in an industry that receives all sorts of special treatment from Congress, including an exemption from our country's anti-trust laws. He's a public figure, plain and simple.

If Mariotti had used a racial epithet to refer to Guillen, people wouldn't be calling Guillen "thin skinned." They'd be calling for Mariotti's head.

YDD

Anonymous,  8:39 PM  

I’m tired of the special treatment given professional athletes. I doubt the White Sox would tolerate other management employees using such language. Yes, Mariotti is a jerk. However, Guillen should stoop to his level. He should accept responsibility and apologize for his bigoted remarks.

Anonymous,  10:13 PM  

The media should apologize to Guillen for being anti-Hispanic.

Marathon Pundit 10:36 PM  

Mariotti is being squeezed out of his profession because he doesn't interview athletes in the club house.

From Rick Morrissey's column last week:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/cs-060622morrissey,1,2465414.column?coll=chi-sportsnew-hed

I'll give Mariotti this: Whether he realizes it or not, he might have been the nation's first blogger, without actually writing one.

He has led the way by not leading the way to the locker room or the clubhouse. He writes what he wants without ever talking to a soul.

The only difference is he travels often to events, unlike bloggers, many of whom sit in their underwear all day and update, update, update.

But it's not the way most columnists do their jobs. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Here is what I wrote on Marathon Pundit:

Jay Mariotti travels to games, but doesn't interview the athletes. The Tribune's Morrissey compares him to bloggers, who write whatever they want without interacting with the jocks. There's a big difference though, between Jay and the blogosphere. Most bloggers aren't paid to write, or they receive very little compensation for their efforts. Mariotti is presumably well-paid to do half of his job, and as an additional perk, he has an expense account to draw upon.

Also, few bloggers have the impeccable press credentials that a reporter for a major metropolitan enjoys.

I have another "F" word for Mariotti: Fraud.

Kenny Williams, the White Sox general manager, told ESPN yesterday that if Guillen keeps mouthing off, Ozzie could be fired.

Anonymous,  11:57 PM  

Firing Ozzie would be stupid, he is good at what he does

This is much ado about nothing the PC thought and speech police
sorry that some people don't think homosexual behaviour is normal or natural or good

Mariotti sucks

steve schnorf 12:11 AM  

I know neither of the men. I sometimes read Mariooti's column. I have no idea whether he is gay or not. Ozzie did an unsmart thing by using a derogatory slang word.

Having said that, Mariotti is clearly a jerk (read him for a while if you don't agree). Given my choice of the two of them, I think I would prefer Ozzie, warts and all.

Anonymous,  7:36 AM  

I didn't really defend either Natarus or Ozzie.
I just said that neither comment mattered much [Burton's did to a degree, but I Chicago has far more serious problems than that.]

Baseball manager say mean things? Who cares?

The stadium gets public financing? Are you really claiming that makes Ozzie a public employee who can be sanctioned for his remarks?

Want to solve the problem? Let's just have a law saying "No Mean Talk, Ever." And we should include Germ. Sheps. in that category. I have had it with people claiming that GSDs are mean dogs. I find that very offensive. We need to put a stop to those sorts of comments.

Is that the solution?

Or would it be better to tell our children "Ozzie Guillen is a fine manager, but not the best role model. Ignore him other than when he is talking about baseball."

Ignoring Ozzie doesn't make what he said correct. It just makes the comments irrelevant. Don't like what he says? Don't invite him for dinner. But don't act like it is some sort of crisis.

Anonymous,  7:34 AM  

Is there any doubt that Mariotti used this minor incident to gain name recognition for himself? It was "nothing". Must have been a slow news day.
As for Ozzie, I am surprised that anybody is ever able to understand Ozzie when he talks? He may have been in this country for twenty years but, he still needs a translater at his side in order for people to be able to understand him. A great coach but a "slow learner" when it comes to speaking the English language.

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