Saturday, June 24, 2006

The Tao Of Being A Professional Asshole: A White Sox Manager’s Story

Ozzie Guillen just doesn’t know when to shut up. He’s openly playing a game of chicken with Bud Selig and Selig, to no one’s surprise, is blinking yet again.

Selig should have suspended Guillen for his homophobic comments based on the John Rocker principle that hate speech is not tolerated in baseball. As he always does, the commissioner opted for a course of non-action (especially when the party in question is a member of one of Selig’s favorite teams). Now Guillen is openly mocking one of the requirements of his punishment and states that he will not attend sensitivity training. How can Selig not speak up now? How can he not suspend Guillen, if only to assert the authority of the commissioner’s office?

Furthermore, how can White Sox management condone such behavior? How can they have an employee thumbing his nose at a sanction handed down by Bud Selig? The White Sox should’ve dealt with Guillen in order to send a message that their franchise doesn’t condone their manager’s choice of words. Now they’ve got to do something to rein in their loose cannon. If they don’t, the White Sox are as guilty in all of this as their lunatic employee.

In a sick sort of way, Guillen is only pushing the parameters of acceptable behavior as far as Bud Selig will permit, which only serves to highlight how ineffectual the commissioner is, at least when the Red Sox, White Sox, Twins, Marlins or other “favorite son” franchise transgresses. Rest assured that Selig would’ve sprung to action if this was taking place in a city where he collects no bribes.

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