If you heard about Ozzie Guillen's comments regarding Latinos in baseball, then I'm sure you saw the coverage: Guillen, as usual, is portrayed as the crazy guy. What people miss, in general, is that the White Sox manager is one of the most intelligent men in baseball, bar none. I'm serious.
Howard Bryant at ESPN took a few days to get this together, but I'm glad he did. This article is a nuanced and smart look at what Ozzie was trying to say, and the realities of MLB today. Definitely a must read. For all that we bash on ESPN here, this one is good.
The problem I see with this rant is, if Ozzie does feel passionatly about it and thinks it's something that needs to be changed, it's good for him to speak his mind. The issue is the source however. How many people out there when they first saw the a headline with Ozzie and Rant instantly thought, here he goes again. So that hurts the credibility a little.
ReplyDeleteI still love Ozzie
The article does make some good points. However, it is a bit wordy.
ReplyDeleteSteve, I agree with your assessment on Ozzie's credibility. However, if it doesn't come from someone who isn't afraid to speak up, it's not going to matter if someone else says it and no one else hears them. Take the ESPN article for example: how many people do you actually think will sit down and read that? So, in the end, the whole thing is really a double edged sword: Ozzie's loud mouth has affected his credibility, but in order to get that sort of publicity you probably need that loud mouth. In the end, people only care about sound bites in today's society, thus they don't give a crap about his true message. Cracker.