Ozzie in need of remedial math, social science tutoring
When I asked my mom what she thought about Ozzie Guillen’s recent comments regarding Fidel Castro, she replied, “Echarle vinagre a una herida!;” a Cuban saying which translates as “pouring vinegar on a wound.”
Rarely has my mother spoken with such vehemence about the dictator who still rules the Cuban homeland she left over 50 years ago.
Ozzie Guillen, manager of the Miami Marlins, might want to consider some remedial tutoring during his current five game suspension for the “I Love Fidel Castro” rant which has infuriated the Cuban-American community. During his current timeout, Ozzie could benefit from some fundamental math lessons covering some business basics: Ÿ The new $634 million dollar Miami Marlins Park was largely funded by Miami-Dade County tax payers of which 65 percent+ are Latino.
Ÿ Miami Marlins Park is located in the heart of Miami’s “Little Havana” — a neighborhood comprised of 98 percent Latinos with 40 percent of them being Cuban residents — and avid baseball fans.
Ÿ 100 percent of Miami-Dade County Cubans are either first generation expatriates who fled Cuba after Castro took power, or, their descendants. In either case, they love Cuba, and they hate Castro. Had Ozzie done his math homework, rather than emotionally vomiting on the media as he has historically done, he would have avoided leaving his team stranded in Philadelphia during the middle of a three-game series in order to offer an apology to his team’s fan base in Miami.
Other considerations for Ozzie’s remedial social science curriculum:
Ÿ Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig put it well when he recently commented that “Baseball is a social institution with important social responsibilities. Ozzie seems to have skipped that lesson.
Ÿ Mixing personal political views with one’s career is dicey at best. This is not the first time Ozzie has publicly angered Latinos in the United States. Back in 2005 he spoke on a radio program hosted by Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez saying ‘’Not too many people like the president. I do.,” evoking the same type of response from Venezuelans here in the United States that my mother shared about Castro. FYI: Chavez and Castro are good buddies.
As for my personal opinion regarding Ozzie’s “I Love Fidel Castro” debacle, we live in a country where free speech is valued; however, that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences for what we say and do. Had this been the first time that Mr. Guillen openly insulted sectors of our collective community, I’d probably agree with the suspension and move on, expecting him to learn his lesson.
However, this is not the first time Ozzie has spouted insults with a variety of vulgar adjectives to make his point. If he were an executive in a publicly held corporation, he would have been fired a long time ago based on the cost to the company — both in dollars and negative publicity. But, alas, Ozzie is not in the boardroom, he’s in the bullpen warming up and wondering if they’ll put him back in the game.
In the end, I guess that will also come down to the math, and whether the Marlins’ owners feel Ozzie will cost them more to keep him in the lineup and potentially decrease their ticket-buying fan base or let him go and cut their losses.
If Ozzie is let go, well, he can always apply for a job as manager of Castro’s baseball team. After all, he does love the man, although, I’m guessing that Castro’s communist regime probably doesn’t pay as well as the Marlins.
And, of course, in Cuba, mouthing off may cost him a lot more than just his job.
Jerry Campagna, formerly publisher of Paddock Publications Latino-focused weekly journal Reflejos, is president of MST Latino Inc, a capacity-building firm with more than 16 years experience in developing effective target marketing initiatives. Reach him by email at jcampagna@mstlatino.com