Never Darken My Towels Again

The whole Ozzie Guillen situation has been talked to death. But I just wanted to make a few more quick comments on it before I leave it in the dust, where it so richly belongs.

First, I had no problems with Guillen not apologizing to Jay Mariotti. Guillen has been abundantly clear that he doesn't like Mariotti (and he's not the only one), and whatever the issues are between those two are for those two to resolve.

However, I found it darkly amusing how he apologized to the people who might have been offended by his slur. Guillen said that he wasn’t referring to gay people with that word. He only directed the slur to Mariotti – so why was everyone else so upset?

Typical Guillen. In his world, it's always someone else's fault. In this case, it's the media's fault for printing a comment he thought was off the record. And it's everyone else's fault for being offended by his slur. It's also their fault for not being from Venezuela, too.

That whole "In Venezuela it means something else" is a weak excuse, too. If you recall, he used the same excuse after he called A-Rod a "hypocrite" before the WBC.

And now Guillen says that he'll need to take English lessons before taking his sensitivity training so he'll know what they're talking about. Give me a break. He was able to speak English well enough to pass his citizenship test. Does sensitivity training require greater fluency?

A poll at chicagosports.com indicated showed 68% of responders chalked this up to "Ozzie being Ozzie." I'm inclined to agree with them.

Only an ass would say something like that in front of reporters. And Ozzie is nothing if not an ass.