Marlins’ Guillen offers mea culpa; accepts suspension
Again apologizes for comments admiring Fidel Castro, but road to forgiveness may be long.
Tuesday’s mea culpa in two languages was the first step for Ozzie Guillen, but signs indicate the road to forgiveness will be long and difficult for the embattled Miami Marlins manager.
The club suspended Guillen for five games before his morning news conference, in which Guillen repeatedly apologized for comments that enraged Miami’s Cuban community.
Besides saying “I love Fidel Castro” in a Time magazine story, Guillen expressed admiration for the Cuban dictator’s staying power.
Speaking “with my heart in my hands and on bended knees,” Guillen said his thoughts in Spanish came out wrong in English, that he meant to convey amazement Castro survived five decades in power despite oppressive tactics and that he opposed Castro’s policies.
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Usually defiant in the face of criticism, Guillen was subdued and emotional as he answered questions for more than an hour at Marlins Park, which opened a week ago amid much optimism.
Outside the ballpark, located in Little Havana, some people watched him on a large screen while others protested and called for his dismissal. One held a sign addressed to Marlins President David Samson that said, “Do you still keep Guillen if he had said, ‘I love Hitler’?”
Guillen, Venezuelan-born but a 12-year Miami resident, said he did not object to his suspen- sion; Major League Baseball issued a statement supporting it. Bench coach Joey Cora will serve as interim manager.
“We believe in him. We believe his apology,” said Samson, who said the club did not mull firing Guillen.
Kansas City Royals catcher Brayan Pena, who fled Cuba as a 16-year-old and resides in Miami, agrees. “For him to change the way people think of him, he needs to do a lot of work,” he said. “But I think he’s going to be able to do it. We Cubans, we believe in second chances, too. So hopefully the Cuban and Latin community give him that
second chance.”