ChiSox Manager Guillen Calls Chi-Town Columnist Jay Mariotti A Fag...

[RhymesayersDU]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2494491

Guillen calls columnist Mariotti homosexual slur
ESPN.com news services

On Tuesday to reporters, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen referred to Chicago Sun-Times columnist and Around the Horn contributor Jay Mariotti as a derogatory name for a homosexual.

Angry with a recent column by Mariotti critical of Guillen's handling of recently demoted relief pitcher Sean Tracey and upset with Mariotti with columns of the past, Guillen said to reporters when referring to Mariotti before Tuesday's game with the Cardinals, "What a piece of [expletive] he is, [expletive] fag."

Mariotti was covering the NBA Finals Tuesday night and was not present to hear what Guillen said.

Columnist Greg Couch of the Sun-Times wrote a column Wednesday in response, calling for commissioner Bud Selig to suspend Guillen for his use of a "hurtful homophobic" term.

Before writing the column, Couch asked Guillen for an explanation. Guillen defended his use of the term "fag" by saying this about homosexuals and the use of the word in question: "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.''

Guillen said that in his native Venezuela, that word is not a reference to a person's sexuality, but to his courage. He said he was saying that Mariotti is "not man enough to meet me and talk about [things before writing].''

Guillen also told Couch that he has gay friends, attends WNBA games, went to a Madonna concert and plans to go to the Gay Games in Chicago.

"I called that of this man [Mariotti],'' he told Couch. "I'm not trying to hurt anybody [else]."

Scott Reifert, the White Sox's vice president of communications, offered to apologize on behalf of the organization when approached by Couch.

"To anybody who was insulted or hurt by that comment ... as an organization, we'll certainly apologize," Reifert told Couch.

[freak6]

Lame. Why does Guillen read the papers. I wouldn't bother in his position. Who cares what the media or fans think, it is irrelevant.

[RhymesayersDU]

Guillen also told Couch that he has gay friends, attends WNBA games, went to a Madonna concert

That is the best part of the article. "I totally go to WNBA games! I must not be homophobic!"

[Master___Pain]

That is the best part of the article. "I totally go to WNBA games! I must not be homophobic!"

You know your gay when.....

[PatsWin2002]

Not that there's anything wrong with that.........

[RhymesayersDU]

Not that there's anything wrong with that.........
Oh damn you Patsie, I was totally going to say that.

[PatsWin2002]

Oh damn you Patsie, I was totally going to say that.

I knew I had to be quick! :sunshine:

[bronco militia]

bwhahaha!!!....when Jay Mariotti worked in Denver he never missed a chance to throw Elway under the bus....

[Man-Goblin]

Pure hilarity all around.

And I agree, the WNBA comment was off the charts. But was he pointing it out because the WNBA has a lot of gay players in it? or because the WNBA is gay itself?

Oops, I didn't mean to "challenge the manhood" of the WNBA. My bad.

[bronco militia]

Pure hilarity all around.

And I agree, the WNBA comment was off the charts. But was he pointing it out because the WNBA has a lot of gay players in it? or because the WNBA is gay itself?

Oops, I didn't mean to "challenge the manhood" of the WNBA. My bad.

wnba=chicks with dic**

[Man-Goblin]

wnba=chicks with dic**

Thanks for that picture in my mind....

[bronco militia]

Thanks for that picture in my mind....

bwhahaha..anytime

[-Slap-]

Before writing the column, Couch asked Guillen for an explanation. Guillen defended his use of the term "fag" by saying this about homosexuals and the use of the word in question: "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.''

Guillen said that in his native Venezuela, that word is not a reference to a person's sexuality, but to his courage. He said he was saying that Mariotti is "not man enough to meet me and talk about [things before writing].''
[else]."
He tries to minimize the damage by saying that word means something else in Venezuela.

:rofl:

Damn right it does. You say that to another man in a Latin country and its go time.

[-Slap-]

Anyway, this whole incident was tremendously insulting to the homosexual community. Not the use of the slur, but being compared to Jay Marriotti. Gay people have never done anything to deserve that.

[The Big E]

That is the best part of the article. "I totally go to WNBA games! I must not be homophobic!"
LOL That quote is priceless. Also that he threw in that he went to a Madonna concert.

[bronco militia]

Anyway, this whole incident was tremendously insulting to the homosexual community. Not the use of the slur, but being compared to Jay Marriotti. Gay people have never done anything to deserve that.


bwhahaha

[sirhcyennek81]

I am of the mindset, if you behave to the stereotype, then that is what you are. If Mariotti was acting like a fag, then that is what he was. For the record...if all gay men looked like jay marioti...then I would willingly submit myself to those gay cure centers.


:Broncos:

[ludo21]

This thread has great potential. Ha!

[Rock Chalk]

Should have just said he's [expletive] gay.

[Billy Clyde Puckett]

He got the description wrong. Mariotti is a moron

[sirhcyennek81]

Fruit would work better. Mariotti is a fruit. See? Much better.


:Broncos:

[Man-Goblin]

I take issue with what Guillen said. I mean, what's gay about this? Buahh!

http://www.deadspin.com/images/2006/04/mariottiscoat.jpg

[broncofan]

This stuff cracks me up. Guillen talks a little much, but he can call any of those clowns from Around the Horn any derogatory comment for all I care.

I wonder what the fine will be. Has any athlete ever publically referred to another as a fag?

[-Slap-]

This stuff cracks me up. Guillen talks a little much, but he can call any of those clowns from Around the Horn any derogatory comment for all I care.

I wonder what the fine will be. Has any athlete ever publically referred to another as a fag?
Shockey called the Tuna a fag just last year. It happens all the time in boxing, particularly between Latinos.

[bendog]

Shockey called the Tuna a fag just last year. It happens all the time in boxing, particularly between Latinos.
Yeah, well latinos are mostly gay, so it figures. Those swarthy good looks, the combed back hair, dark skin and pencil thin mustaches.

[Master___Pain]

I take issue with what Guillen said. I mean, what's gay about this? Buahh!

http://www.deadspin.com/images/2006/04/mariottiscoat.jpg

Good lord that's an fugly man. Fell out of the old ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down...the mullet just excentuates the hideous features.

[Kaylore]

You don't think that swoosh in his bangs is sexy?!?

[Master___Pain]

You don't think that swoosh in his bangs is sexy?!?

He's no Christopher Reeve

[sirhcyennek81]

Sexy...and Mariotti...in the same sentence...please gouge my eyes out...please...


:Broncos:

[Dr. Broncenstein]

Shockey called the Tuna a fag just last year. It happens all the time in boxing, particularly between Latinos.


I like to use a little word play on the latino version... especailly table reservations at a resturaunt. Me llamo "Marty Cohen"

[bendog]

You don't think that swoosh in his bangs is sexy?!?
That swoosh makes him look like a middle aged former alter boy.

[broncosteven]

This is why I love Ozzie!

Old Trusty in Dusty on the north side would have said something like " Maaaan...I don't know nothing about no ******s Man." Right after old Dustbags attended a Windy City Gay Mens Choir Performance& while he was walking through the Gold Coast & Rainbow Bridge after 11pm on a weekend night.

[No1BroncoFan]

wnba=chicks with dic**
That must make it Bob's favorite league. ;D

Ben

[rbackfactory80]

Has anyone every seen Marriotti's eyebrows. I think Ozzie nailed it.

[-Slap-]

I like to use a little word play on the latino version... especailly table reservations at a resturaunt. Me llamo "Marty Cohen"
That's what Ozzie should have done, simply referred to him as Jay Maricone.

[Hogan11]

Are we even sure Ozzie Guillen actually said this? I mean, c'mon...can anyone actually understand the sounds that are supposed to pass for some sort of speech that come out of Ozzie's mouth?

Every interview I see with him, I can only make out a few words.

[B-Love]

I don't know if Mariotti smokes pole, and I don't care.

But I do know Mariotti is the type of journalist who will do anything to sell negativity, even when the Sox win 10 out of 11.

Even when Jerry Manuel was sleeping on the job, half of the Sox clubhouse banned Mariotti from interviews.

I love Ozzie; **** Mariotti.

[Bronco Billy]

I love Ozzie, but not in that way. When did Mariotti work in Denver? He's been in Chicago for years now. Everyone hates him here too. Don't you want him back, or did you run him out of town? He's negative about everything. After the Sox won the World Series last year, the Sun-Times ran a spread about all the reasons he listed throughout the year about why the Sox wouldn't make the playoffs. Man, I hate him. Way to go Ozzie!!!

[Billy Clyde Puckett]

Mariotti is on Mike and Mike right now. What an A-hole

[bronco militia]

I love Ozzie, but not in that way. When did Mariotti work in Denver? He's been in Chicago for years now. Everyone hates him here too. Don't you want him back, or did you run him out of town? He's negative about everything. After the Sox won the World Series last year, the Sun-Times ran a spread about all the reasons he listed throughout the year about why the Sox wouldn't make the playoffs. Man, I hate him. Way to go Ozzie!!!

he left the Denver Post sometime in the 80's....

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Mariotti is on Mike and Mike right now. What an A-hole

I'd say more like a fag. All Ozzie did was speak the truth.

[broncsyanks]

i take insult by the reporters not ozzie. 1st off its an expression. THen ozzie apologized to that community for using the expression. he then called the reporter a piece of $h!t !! That was classic. Now the reporter is trying to make it an issue about the gay community. this is really pathetic and makes me as well as other s believe that he is a piece of $h!t. Because he could have just shrugged it off and said it was ahe said she said thing. he didnt do that. What is not being said by these reporters is that he has been bashing this team all last year and again this year. THese reporters are just trying to manipulate everyones logic. how about they get upset at the reporter who played that audio of ozzie saying that? nothing said. also, trust a reporter? are you F'in kidding me! yeah i know some lawyers you can trust as well. the unsaid thing here is that this reporter had to eat crow last year when they won the whole thing and that has made him emphasize more on hating that team. Now he doesnt like that. Good job ozzie

[Tredici]

Jeez. When Marge Schott spoke like the crass, politically incorrect person she is, Bud Selig had to run her out "For the Good of Baseball". Guess being plugged into Bud's good ole boy network equates to more tolerance for Ozzie's same inability to control what comes out of his mouth.

[broncosteven]

Jeez. When Marge Schott spoke like the crass, politically incorrect person she is, Bud Selig had to run her out "For the Good of Baseball". Guess being plugged into Bud's good ole boy network equates to more tolerance for Ozzie's same inability to control what comes out of his mouth.


Marge didn't make a single comment that everyone (at least everyone male) here online has used in their lifes. We just didn't have a flock of reporters standing around taking notes.

Marge went on a rampage about another race & was not speaking in context of just one person if memory serves.

[Tredici]

Marge didn't make a single comment that everyone (at least everyone male) here online has used in their lifes. We just didn't have a flock of reporters standing around taking notes.

Marge went on a rampage about another race & was not speaking in context of just one person if memory serves.


Doesn't matter. Offensive speech is offensive speech. And we do have to worry about "What's Good For Baseball".

:~ohyah!:

[Rock Chalk]

Doesn't matter. Offensive speech is offensive speech. And we do have to worry about "What's Good For Baseball".

:~ohyah!:
Define "offensive speech" and I will give you anotehr definition from someone else.

The problem is, what is offensive to one is not offensive to another and everything can be offensive to someone.

So, in essence, offensive speech is all speech so, the only solution is for everyone to shut up.

[youcandoit1687]

Define "offensive speech" and I will give you anotehr definition from someone else.

The problem is, what is offensive to one is not offensive to another and everything can be offensive to someone.

So, in essence, offensive speech is all speech so, the only solution is for everyone to shut up.

i take offense to that!

[Rocket 7]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2496753

Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen on Thursday was fined an undisclosed amount of money and ordered to undergo sensitivity training for his use of a derogatory term aimed at Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti.

No More Ozzie Being Ozzie
Ozzie Guillen insults. Apologizes. Tries to move past it. But his latest slight isn't quite that simple. It's part of a troubling trend. Gene Wojciechowski reports from Chicago. Story.

"On Tuesday night, Ozzie Guillen used language that is offensive and completely unacceptable," commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. "Baseball is a social institution with responsibility to set appropriate tone and example. Conduct or language that reflects otherwise will not be tolerated. The use of slurs embarrasses the individual, the club and the game."


Guillen went into a profanity-laced tirade against Mariotti before Tuesday night's game against St. Louis and called him a number of names, including a derogatory term that is often used to describe someone's sexual orientation.

Guillen met with reporters Thursday before leaving U.S. Cellular Field to serve his suspension, saying as he did Wednesday that he used the wrong word. He said he agreed with Selig's punishment. He also vowed not to let up on Mariotti.



"The commissioner did what he had to do," Guillen said. "They don't agree with what I say. Me either. I agree with what I say about Jay. ... I'm not going to change. One thing I'm going to make clear is I apologize to the community, but to Jay, no chance. This thing is on and on for good."

Major League Baseball asked the White Sox to set up the sensitivity training and spokesman Scott Reifert said the team would do so, using its employee assistance program, with specifics to be determined.



Guillen said he wasn't sure what sensitivity training would entail, but would abide by the ruling.



"What class? What is it? Mr. Selig said I have to do something about this,'' Guillen said. "It was not good for me and baseball to be involved in this.''

Guillen said team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf "reprimanded me as a friend.''

"Jerry is behind Major League Baseball about this decision to fine me. I respect that. It's good for baseball because I put Bud Selig in a spot he's not supposed to be. It's done and hopefully we will learn from this and move on.''



Before Wednesday night's game, Guillen acknowledged that his use of the word might have offended some.



"I shouldn't have mentioned the name that was mentioned, but I'm not going to back off of Jay," Guillen said, using another profanity to describe Mariotti, a contributor on ESPN's "Around The Horn."



"The word I used, I should have used something different. A lot of people's feelings were hurt and I didn't mean it that way."



Guillen said he had spoken to Reinsdorf about the incident.



"Jay, I think I made this guy a lot of money and he's famous. If not for Ozzie Guillen, no one would have heard of him," Guillen said. "If I hurt anybody with what I called him, I apologize."

Angry with a recent column by Mariotti critical of Guillen's handling of recently demoted relief pitcher Sean Tracey and upset with Mariotti over past columns, Guillen said to reporters when referring to Mariotti before Tuesday's game, "What a piece of [expletive] he is, [expletive] fag."

Mariotti, commenting on "Around The Horn" on Wednesday, said then he believed a suspension was in order for Guillen.


When reached before Wednesday night's St. Louis-Chicago game, Mariotti said that the story is the gay groups who have been insulted, and not him.

Vote: Has Ozzie gone too far?
So what's your take on the controversial manager, SportsNation? Is he a genius who pulled all the right strings in leading the White Sox to the World Series, or is he a callous, calculating and egotistical?
• Click here to VOTE!

But Mariotti added that he is not meeting Guillen or going to the White Sox clubhouse because he has been the subject of physical threats while there over the past few years and the White Sox have refused to do anything about it.

"I'm taking a stand," Mariotti said. "I've received physical threats through the years and the White Sox have done nothing to address it.

"I've said, 'If you guys are not going to do anything about this, I'm going to stop coming in there.' "

In a phone interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday night, Mariotti said his Thursday column will call for Guillen to be suspended.

"I'm a big guy. I have to accept the criticism," Mariotti said in a phone interview Wednesday night. "I'm appalled that he can use these ugly slurs and think it's an acceptable form of retaliation in American life. It's not."

Reifert, the Chicago White Sox vice president of communications, said he was aware of one incident in 1997 of a shouting match between Mariotti and Tony Phillips, then a White Sox player. He said team officials and officials from the newspaper had lunch in the 90s to discuss Mariotti's complaints.

Since then, he said, the team has written letters to Mariotti and the newspaper offering to have a meeting and have offered to close the clubhouse for Mariotti to meet with the players, but the White Sox have not received any responses.

Reifert said the team had had good relationships with reporters and columnists and the team "stands on its reputation" for being open and accessible to reporters.


Columnist Greg Couch of the Sun-Times wrote a column Wednesday in response, calling for commissioner Bud Selig to suspend Guillen for his use of a "hurtful homophobic" term.

Before writing the column, Couch asked Guillen for an explanation. Guillen defended his use of the term "fag" by saying this about homosexuals and the use of the word in question: "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.''



Guillen said that in his native Venezuela, that word is not a reference to a person's sexuality, but to his courage. He said he was saying that Mariotti is "not man enough to meet me and talk about [things before writing].''

Guillen also told Couch that he has gay friends, attends WNBA games, went to a Madonna concert and plans to go to the Gay Games in Chicago.

"I called that of this man [Mariotti],'' he told Couch. "I'm not trying to hurt anybody [else]."

Reifert offered to apologize on behalf of the organization when approached by Couch.

"To anybody who was insulted or hurt by that comment ... as an organization, we'll certainly apologize," Reifert told Couch.

Guillen, who led the White Sox to their first World Series title in 88 years last season, has gotten into trouble several times with his comments.

In spring training this year, he apologized to Alex Rodriguez for comments he made in a Sports Illustrated article in which he criticized the Yankees' star for waffling on his choice of countries for the World Baseball Classic.

In his first season, Guillen called umpire Hunter Wendelstedt a liar. Later in the season, Guillen sarcastically referred to Buck Showalter of the Rangers as the best manager in the history of baseball and the guy who invented the game -- all after Showalter questioned Guillen's knowledge of the rules.

Guillen also went off on a profanity-filled tirade last season against former teammate and fellow Venezuelan Magglio Ordonez, who left the White Sox and joined the Detroit Tigers.

[RhymesayersDU]

Around the Horn was awesome today.

Showing the video of Guillen "apologizing" to anybody he offended and then following that up with "I still think Mariotti is a pieice of ****" was classic.

[-Slap-]

Around the Horn was awesome today.

Showing the video of Guillen "apologizing" to anybody he offended and then following that up with "I still think Mariotti is a pieice of ****" was classic.
I think pieces of **** everywhere should be offended.

Personally speaking, nothing that has ever excreted from my bowels was even remotely as disgusting as Jay Mariotti.

[broncosteven]

Doesn't matter. Offensive speech is offensive speech. And we do have to worry about "What's Good For Baseball".

:~ohyah!:

So I guess we should strike everything Leo "the Lip" Durocher & Ty Cobb ever said also huh?

[SureShot]

He is definately a FAG.

[Tredici]

Define "offensive speech" and I will give you anotehr definition from someone else.

The problem is, what is offensive to one is not offensive to another and everything can be offensive to someone.

So, in essence, offensive speech is all speech so, the only solution is for everyone to shut up.

I agree with you completely, Texas Boy.

[Bronco Billy]

Sensitivity the issue, Guillen the problem

June 22, 2006

BY JAY MARIOTTI SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST




Try as I do, it's hard to view sports as some sort of guiding light for humankind. You want to believe in this stuff after sitting in a Dallas arena and watching Dwyane Wade, a credit to his hometown and as humble as he is spectacular, become the closest thing we've seen to Michael Jordan. But then you return to Chicago and are dragged into the gutter drain by Ozzie Guillen's homophobic circus.



I'm told the Blizzard of Oz, in one of his tiresome rants, referred to me as a "fag'' Tuesday night, among other niceties. Personally, I can shrug it off as an occupational hazard, knowing I'm called meaner things at the coffee stand every morning. I also know it places me on an extraordinarily long list of people the Blizzard has dissed or launched into, including Magglio ("Venezuelan [bleep]'') Ordonez, Buck Showalter, Phil Garner, Sean Tracey, the Los Angeles Angels, every American League umpire, the reporter he threatened to rub out last winter and, by not showing up at the White House for a ceremony, the President of the United States.

Ozzie? He makes Mark Cuban seem like Virginia McCaskey.

But I am not the story here in the latest chapter of OzFest, a farce that is averaging two new targets a week and will have another co-star as soon as tonight. The story is Guillen's mouth and the warped diatribes of a man who thinks slurs are an acceptable means of retaliation in American life, like one of his dugout-ordered purpose pitches. Twice in less than a year, Guillen has dropped derogatory homosexual terms in his public dealings as White Sox manager. Last year at Yankee Stadium, he claimed to be greeting a friend warmly when he said, "Hey, everybody, this guy's a homosexual! He's a child molester!'' Two New York-area columnists took offense, as they should have, and so did I -- the only writer in Chicago who did, which is often how it works in a town softer and more politically driven by the sports franchises than a genuinely tough, independent sports media town such as Boston.

Obviously, Guillen hasn't learned his lesson about using such ugly language. He hasn't because his boss, Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, is an enabler who is letting Ozzie run amok, whether it's offending homosexual groups that want Guillen punished or saying someone should "shoot the [bleep]'' after Jason Grimsley served as a steroids informant in a federal investigation. Reinsdorf, as I pointed out last year, is co-chairman of Major League Baseball's Equal Opportunity Committee. Years ago, he and Bud Selig led the charge to oust Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott after she made racial and ethnic slurs. Sports and America are better off for that deed, yet where is Reinsdorf when his own manager has slurred the gay community not once but twice? Isn't Reinsdorf hypocritical when he refers to Guillen as "the Hispanic Jackie Mason'' and asks us to take everything he says in a humorous light?

Two-week suspension needed



The time has come for a two-week suspension, long enough for human sensibility and decency to kick in. It's more important the Sox send a message about what they stand for than what Guillen's absence might mean in a pennant race. Let Ozzie think about life a little. Send him out for some professional sensitivity training, not what is being attempted by unskilled shrinks in the public-relations office. Tell him why it's fine to admonish a media person all he wants -- a critic should accept criticism, naturally -- as long as Guillen doesn't step over the line and slur gay groups. Most importantly, explain what happened to Schott, Al Campanis and Jimmy "The Greek'' Snyder when they made insensitive comments.

They were fired, run out of their professions.

I am hardly alone in thinking Guillen, if he doesn't wise up, is headed toward a bad ending in Chicago. As somebody who lobbied hard in print for Ozzie to get the job, I knew he would be a politically incorrect load at times. But little did I know he would become a national embarrassment to a city, a franchise and a sport. The incidents are coming a little too frequently for comfort, and anyone who thinks he's just deflecting attention from his team isn't living on a sane planet. The shame of it is, his antics are taking away from the enjoyment of a rare World Series championship in this town, a title he made happen. As long as the Sox are winning, I suppose there will be enough Neanderthal fans who would defend a manager for an ax murdering. But when a lightning rod starts struggling and losing -- see Bob Knight, Indiana -- even the big bosses lose patience with the nonstop stunts.

Guillen's beef with me involves his belief that if I criticize him, I should rush down to the ballpark immediately and let him litter me with insults. If that sounds like high-school macho nonsense, realize it's the general mentality of baseball clubhouses. Imagine a critic panning a movie, then being required to take a tongue-lashing the next day from an angry Vince Vaughn. Imagine a restaurant critic not liking an Italian joint, then having to show up so the chef can throw meatballs at him. Sorry, guy, I'm not a beat writer who covers the team every day. Tuesday night, I was at Game 6 of the NBA Finals, where I should have been. Next week, I'll be at the NBA draft. Next month, I'll be at the British Open.

If Ozzie has a problem with my schedule, he should behave better so I don't have to write about him.

I might cede to Guillen's wishes, by the way, if Sox management through time had been more professional in controlling numerous incidents in which I was threatened physically in their clubhouse. This, in turn, led to published stories about the episodes and turned me into what no journalist wants to be -- the news -- which led to a Sox-generated perception that I am some evil being who roots for the Cubs. Tribune Co. will confirm that as thoroughly absurd.

Finally, last season, there were death threats and an incident at U.S. Cellular Field involving Carl Everett. Again, the Sox don't even address volatile issues when they involve me and other writers. Until they do, these are the rules they'll have to live by. Consider the latest Guillen flareups to be Exhibit A of why this situation exists.

Self-destruction looming



I treat all Chicago franchises with the same brush. When a team wins, I tell you why, which might explain the scads of recent columns commending Guillen for his baseball leadership, general manager Ken Williams for his aggressive trades and Reinsdorf for his $100 million payroll. When a team doesn't win, I might write why Dusty Baker should be fired, why Jerry Angelo is a hit-and-miss football executive and why the Blackhawks have fallen farther than any franchise in sports. That's what a columnist does.

But no media person walking into the locker rooms of the Bears, Cubs, Bulls or Hawks has been subjected to regular slurs and threats. Isolated incidents, perhaps, but not a running war. Those clubs run professional shops, and when a player, manager or coach has an issue, things are handled with a certain dignity.

In Ozzie's world, you are called a "fag.''

He is the story. He is the problem. And someone better save him from himself before he self-destructs.

[broncosteven]

Sensitivity the issue, Guillen the problem

June 22, 2006

BY JAY MARIOTTI SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST




Try as I do, it's hard to view sports as some sort of guiding light for humankind. You want to believe in this stuff after sitting in a Dallas arena and watching Dwyane Wade, a credit to his hometown and as humble as he is spectacular, become the closest thing we've seen to Michael Jordan. But then you return to Chicago and are dragged into the gutter drain by Ozzie Guillen's homophobic circus.



I'm told the Blizzard of Oz, in one of his tiresome rants, referred to me as a "fag'' Tuesday night, among other niceties. Personally, I can shrug it off as an occupational hazard, knowing I'm called meaner things at the coffee stand every morning. I also know it places me on an extraordinarily long list of people the Blizzard has dissed or launched into, including Magglio ("Venezuelan [bleep]'') Ordonez, Buck Showalter, Phil Garner, Sean Tracey, the Los Angeles Angels, every American League umpire, the reporter he threatened to rub out last winter and, by not showing up at the White House for a ceremony, the President of the United States.

Ozzie? He makes Mark Cuban seem like Virginia McCaskey.

But I am not the story here in the latest chapter of OzFest, a farce that is averaging two new targets a week and will have another co-star as soon as tonight. The story is Guillen's mouth and the warped diatribes of a man who thinks slurs are an acceptable means of retaliation in American life, like one of his dugout-ordered purpose pitches. Twice in less than a year, Guillen has dropped derogatory homosexual terms in his public dealings as White Sox manager. Last year at Yankee Stadium, he claimed to be greeting a friend warmly when he said, "Hey, everybody, this guy's a homosexual! He's a child molester!'' Two New York-area columnists took offense, as they should have, and so did I -- the only writer in Chicago who did, which is often how it works in a town softer and more politically driven by the sports franchises than a genuinely tough, independent sports media town such as Boston.

Obviously, Guillen hasn't learned his lesson about using such ugly language. He hasn't because his boss, Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, is an enabler who is letting Ozzie run amok, whether it's offending homosexual groups that want Guillen punished or saying someone should "shoot the [bleep]'' after Jason Grimsley served as a steroids informant in a federal investigation. Reinsdorf, as I pointed out last year, is co-chairman of Major League Baseball's Equal Opportunity Committee. Years ago, he and Bud Selig led the charge to oust Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott after she made racial and ethnic slurs. Sports and America are better off for that deed, yet where is Reinsdorf when his own manager has slurred the gay community not once but twice? Isn't Reinsdorf hypocritical when he refers to Guillen as "the Hispanic Jackie Mason'' and asks us to take everything he says in a humorous light?

Two-week suspension needed



The time has come for a two-week suspension, long enough for human sensibility and decency to kick in. It's more important the Sox send a message about what they stand for than what Guillen's absence might mean in a pennant race. Let Ozzie think about life a little. Send him out for some professional sensitivity training, not what is being attempted by unskilled shrinks in the public-relations office. Tell him why it's fine to admonish a media person all he wants -- a critic should accept criticism, naturally -- as long as Guillen doesn't step over the line and slur gay groups. Most importantly, explain what happened to Schott, Al Campanis and Jimmy "The Greek'' Snyder when they made insensitive comments.

They were fired, run out of their professions.

I am hardly alone in thinking Guillen, if he doesn't wise up, is headed toward a bad ending in Chicago. As somebody who lobbied hard in print for Ozzie to get the job, I knew he would be a politically incorrect load at times. But little did I know he would become a national embarrassment to a city, a franchise and a sport. The incidents are coming a little too frequently for comfort, and anyone who thinks he's just deflecting attention from his team isn't living on a sane planet. The shame of it is, his antics are taking away from the enjoyment of a rare World Series championship in this town, a title he made happen. As long as the Sox are winning, I suppose there will be enough Neanderthal fans who would defend a manager for an ax murdering. But when a lightning rod starts struggling and losing -- see Bob Knight, Indiana -- even the big bosses lose patience with the nonstop stunts.

Guillen's beef with me involves his belief that if I criticize him, I should rush down to the ballpark immediately and let him litter me with insults. If that sounds like high-school macho nonsense, realize it's the general mentality of baseball clubhouses. Imagine a critic panning a movie, then being required to take a tongue-lashing the next day from an angry Vince Vaughn. Imagine a restaurant critic not liking an Italian joint, then having to show up so the chef can throw meatballs at him. Sorry, guy, I'm not a beat writer who covers the team every day. Tuesday night, I was at Game 6 of the NBA Finals, where I should have been. Next week, I'll be at the NBA draft. Next month, I'll be at the British Open.

If Ozzie has a problem with my schedule, he should behave better so I don't have to write about him.

I might cede to Guillen's wishes, by the way, if Sox management through time had been more professional in controlling numerous incidents in which I was threatened physically in their clubhouse. This, in turn, led to published stories about the episodes and turned me into what no journalist wants to be -- the news -- which led to a Sox-generated perception that I am some evil being who roots for the Cubs. Tribune Co. will confirm that as thoroughly absurd.

Finally, last season, there were death threats and an incident at U.S. Cellular Field involving Carl Everett. Again, the Sox don't even address volatile issues when they involve me and other writers. Until they do, these are the rules they'll have to live by. Consider the latest Guillen flareups to be Exhibit A of why this situation exists.

Self-destruction looming



I treat all Chicago franchises with the same brush. When a team wins, I tell you why, which might explain the scads of recent columns commending Guillen for his baseball leadership, general manager Ken Williams for his aggressive trades and Reinsdorf for his $100 million payroll. When a team doesn't win, I might write why Dusty Baker should be fired, why Jerry Angelo is a hit-and-miss football executive and why the Blackhawks have fallen farther than any franchise in sports. That's what a columnist does.

But no media person walking into the locker rooms of the Bears, Cubs, Bulls or Hawks has been subjected to regular slurs and threats. Isolated incidents, perhaps, but not a running war. Those clubs run professional shops, and when a player, manager or coach has an issue, things are handled with a certain dignity.

In Ozzie's world, you are called a "fag.''

He is the story. He is the problem. And someone better save him from himself before he self-destructs.


Ozzie is getting sent to sensitivity training by the league.

BTW did anyone see last nights game to complete the sweep of the NL's best team the Cards? Thome hits a HR to win the game on the Sox only hit of night to win the game. What a pitching duel!

[Smiling Assassin27]

Guillen is what he is--an arrogant control freak who lacks tact. Mariotti is what he is--an arrogant media turd who would rather use borderline unfair words than tact to vent his personal vendettas. They're two peas in a pod and live in their own personal parallel universes, neither one the real one.

[Champ4prez]

most media guys are b*tches no how..most never played the game and their the biggest critics..i say let jay marriotti and guillen put some gloves on and have a celebrity boxing match...ill put my $$$ on guillen

[sirhcyennek81]

So he called you a fag, so what. Does mariotti have brothers? My brothers call me a fag, so what. I am one and I dont get offended. I call them fag, thats the end of it. Mariotti, you pussy.

:Broncos:

[CHANGSTER]

Has anyone every seen Marriotti's eyebrows. I think Ozzie nailed it.
Yeah! I remember watching around the horn one day, and the guy must have just got em done. I was freakin horrified. to this day I cant hear anything he says, I just see those fruity eyebrows haha.

[Bronco Billy]

Marriotti had his own radio show in Chicago. They booted him after a month or so because he sucked.

[Northman]

This whole situation has made me laugh. Not because Mariotti got slammed but because the media is calling for a tougher penalty on Gian. Its as if the media thinks this is somehow worse than doing drugs or something. If Gian had said that to a player or opposing manager the media would of just let it go. But they are so up in arms cause the League isnt doing anything harsher to Gian. Pretty funny.

[Northman]

So he called you a fag, so what. Does mariotti have brothers? My brothers call me a fag, so what. I am one and I dont get offended. I call them fag, thats the end of it. Mariotti, you p***Y.

:Broncos:


Exactly. :thumbsup:

[Bronco Billy]

I'm sure glad Selig's with baseball. I'd take Tags over him any day of the week. Except for Mondays when he fines John Lynch for hitting people too hard.

[broncosteven]

Marriotti had his own radio show in Chicago. They booted him after a month or so because he sucked.


I think it was on AM1000 longer than a month. It seemed like forever. I aways turned to the score when he was on. His Dr Jay segment was a disaster.