This is our whole point. Ozzie does not have that little voice inside him telling him to watch every word that he utters to a reporter because it might end up here or get printed there. This is Ozzie's thing. He's not really interested. He doesn't even take himself seriously. He wasn't writing a book. I don't think it was a joke per se, it was just flippant. It was "almost gotta respect that M-F'er for still being alive while everyone's been trying to take him out for decades." He retracted the "love" comment as soon as he said it.

 

It wasn't "almost gotta respect him". It was "I personally respect him". There's nothing to respect about that man. Nothing. He's a deplorable human being. The fact that he's lived as long as he has is an injustice to humanity. It was a stupid thing to say, just like his comment about getting drunk after every game. Even more stupid because of the demographics of where we are in the world.

 

no argument that it was stupid. I'm just offering my unsolicited opinion as to "how could he say such a thing??"

I believe WatchESPN.com will have a video stream of it, if you can watch on your computer.

Miami Native0722, I was born in Cuba, and you are indeed correct. Those who compare life in the US under any president to life in Cuba, are simply ignorant and oblivious to the reality of what is like to live under a real dictatorship.

 

My family was anti-Communist and involved in several Human Rights organizations. I witnessed first hand what it is to live in fear, and see family members arrested, beaten, imprisoned without trial. When I was 9 years old my mom took me to the park, and while I was sitting next to her, a man came up and showed us a badge. He told her "We know you are with the human rights people. If you wan't to see your son grow up, you better watch yourself!" Our house was ransacked by state police two days later. They tore the whole place up. In school I was intimidated by my teachers, because the teachers have been told by the authorities that my parents were "traitors to the revolution." You have no idea what that's like for a young child. It was traumatic.

 

I am extremely lucky to be an American citizen and to live in this country. All of you who were born here have no idea how lucky you are.

 

PS: Twelve years ago when my grandmother had a stroke and was dying in a hospital in Cuba, I asked the Cuban consulate in Washington D.C. for help with a humanitarian visa. They got back to me and said they had checked my family's history, and that I would die before I was ever allowed to set foot in Cuba again, and the same goes for my parents. That's right, I am banned from ever seeing my home country as long as Communism lasts in Cuba. I never got to see my grandmother for one last time, and I was never able to pay my respects to her.

where's Neil Rogers when I need him...

I wish media things like TIME wouldn't go around baiting loudmouths like Ozzie like this. What on earth was TIME doing asking him about whether Fidel was a cool guy or not? Ozzie officially needs a PR man who won't let him go do every interview that's suggested to him...

on what planet is Fidel anywhere near Hitler.

 

This planet.

 

Hitler killed 10+ million directly, many more than that indirectly.

 

Fidel has killed perhaps two million directly, not easy to do when the population is less then 10 million, so he's in the same league. Similar to Pol Pot in Cambodia. 20% or so.

 

All of them were pikers in the grand scheme of totalitarians, Stalin and Mao combined for over 100 million deaths. Videla was nothing compared to any of them.

You do know Castro did not kill two million, right? Kind of like how Bush didn't kill 500,000 thousand or whatever nonsense people spew, or how Mao didn't actually kill 70 million or whatever.

 

None of that is true.

 

Hitler actually made policies that were to execute 14 million non-combatant innocents over the course of decade. It's not even close.

where's Neil Rogers when I need him...

 

 

Uncle Neil's comments over this would have been priceless. I remember vacationing in South Florida at the height of the Elian Gonzalez saga, and Neil brought his A game.

790 the Ticket just reported that Guillen has been suspended 5 games.

Ozzie suspended for 5 games. About what I figured.

I still remember when I was living in Cuba that Castro ordered the sinking of the tug boat "13 de Mayo" which was filled with around 100 Cubans trying to flee the island. The Cuban coastguard sunk it and left the people to drown. They came back 3 hours later and picked a handful of survivors. Dozens of women and children died. Cuban television did not cover the event, so people found out their relatives were dead by listening to foreign news sources.

 

That is just one example of the countless crimes this regime is responsible for.

790 the Ticket just reported that Guillen has been suspended 5 games.

 

 

Good. Maybe this will begin the healing process and we can all put this mess behind us.

I still remember when I was living in Cuba that Castro ordered the sinking of the tug boat "13 de Mayo" which was filled with around 100 Cubans trying to flee the island. The Cuban coastguard sunk it and left the people to drown. They came back 3 hours later and picked a handful of survivors. Dozens of women and children died. Cuban television did not cover the event, so people found out their relatives were dead by listening to foreign news sources.

 

That is just one example of the countless crimes this regime is responsible for.

 

 

Pretty awful. I do not advocate people be like the fools who parade around in Che shirts and Fidel hats.

 

But do realize why the sinking of 13 de Mayo or any other number of Castro crimes or Bautista crimes or Somozo crimes or Videla crimes are not actually anywhere the systematic and racist slaughter in Nazi Germany.

 

Equivocation is a terrible thing. It is an insult to the victims of the Holocaust Jewish or otherwise to pretend the Latin American dictator crimes are anywhere near the same.

That's not going to be enough for some people.

 

Guess that makes Joey Cora our coach for the week.

That's not going to be enough for some people.

 

 

Some people want him fired to prove a point and to maintain their political hold over the subject of Cuba. These people want the embargo to remain and any budging from their narrative will not be allowed by them.

 

It is politics in baseball and it doesn't belong.

This deserves repeating:

 

Miami Native0722, I was born in Cuba, and you are indeed correct. Those who compare life in the US under any president to life in Cuba, are simply ignorant and oblivious to the reality of what is like to live under a real dictatorship.

 

My family was anti-Communist and involved in several Human Rights organizations. I witnessed first hand what it is to live in fear, and see family members arrested, beaten, imprisoned without trial. When I was 9 years old my mom took me to the park, and while I was sitting next to her, a man came up and showed us a badge. He told her "We know you are with the human rights people. If you want to see your son grow up, you better watch yourself!" Our house was ransacked by state police two days later. They tore the whole place up. In school I was intimidated by my teachers, because the teachers have been told by the authorities that my parents were "traitors to the revolution." You have no idea what that's like for a young child. It was traumatic.

 

I am extremely lucky to be an American citizen and to live in this country. All of you who were born here have no idea how lucky you are.

 

Anyone born here has won the lottery of life, even if they don't know it.

You do know Castro did not kill two million, right?

 

Two million over 50 years is probably a conservative estimate. Why do you continually make excuses for Castro?

I don't make excuses for Castro, but I do not like distorting history. It is not a conservative estimate and no historical source of any reputation would make a claim like that. Why would you even need to go there? Latin America has a horrid history of dictators and theres reason enough to call for democracy without resorting to lies.

When's the assassination?

When's the assassination?

 

 

10:59am sharp

Ozzie is wearing a bulletproof vest.

 

They can shoot but he aint dying.

I hate translators.

Press conference: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?topic_id=16646270&c_id=MIA&content_id=20479553&partnerId=aw-8827642449042233862-1063

You do know Castro did not kill two million, right?

 

Two million over 50 years is probably a conservative estimate. Why do you continually make excuses for Castro?

 

2 million is just absurd and comparing a Latin American dictator (and on the brutal dictator scale, he falls below some of some nastry US supported ones in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Chile) to the planned genocide of millions upon millions is silly.

 

And not to diminish the lives of the people who were obviously killed specifically due to Castro's reign, (which by al means is a dictatorship and responsible for an endless amount of human rights violations) but even the Miami Herald gives an estimate of 100k that the revolution has killed in it's lifetime, which considering the source is probably very high.

nobody will remember this by next week. non-issue.

 

It's not a non-issue. In fact it's mostly a misunderstood issue. The Marlins need to fire Ozzie, not because of what he said, but because of what he might say next. If you value your brand, you don't entrust it to a loose cannon. He was a bad hire, and it didn't take him long to prove it. The sooner the Marlins put distance between themselves and this fool, the better.