Ozzie Guillen is the manager of the Marlins for the same reason that Rex Ryan is coach of the Jets.
This is about frightened ownership groups opening new stadiums and not trusting enough in the on-field product. So they got carnival barkers to be the out-front faces of the organizations.
Yes, of course, Guillen and Ryan have certain sports-specific skills. But that does not explain their hirings. Their owners wanted to put on a show, to make their organizations relevant, to get people to buy the PSLs in the Meadowlands and purchase tickets on the site of the old Orange Bowl. Ryan’s Jets were a natural for “Hard Knocks.’’ And Guillen’s Marlins were an obvious choice for Showtime’s Hard Knocks-ian ripoff, “The Franchise.’’
Ryan and Guillen speak a similar language that is boisterous, bawdy and boastful. Their pronouncements are more churlish than Churchill. And they are delivered with about the same thought you might put into turning a doorknob to get into a room; which is to say not much at all. Let’s go eat a (bleeping) snack indeed.
So while Guillen is doing the public perp walk now, fighting for his job and reputation after he decided he was qualified to dabble in politics without knowing what a land mine it would be to speak positively about Fidel Castro when your darn new stadium is built in Little Havana, I hold owner Jeffrey Loria and team president David Samson as responsible as the unthinking Guillen.
Because they were thinking. Calculating. They wanted the outrage of Guillen and now cannot distance themselves just because Guillen didn’t understand the bounds of what too far were.
Loria and Samson — two pretty outrageous fellas on their own — wanted Guillen cursing up a storm, and drawing attention to himself and the team. They wanted the WWE-ification in their manager’s office as much as Woody Johnson craved the same with Ryan.
They hired a man who they knew was insensitive, thus reinforcing to Guillen that rash statements not only were fine, but encouraged. So Loria/Samson have the credibility of Capt. Renault in Casablanca stating, “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” And one beat later being handed his winnings from the casino.
Loria/Samson thought they would be scooping up their own winnings by investing in an outrageous man without an editing valve named Ozzie Guillen. They should not be able to walk away as if they didn’t understand there was gambling going on with such a hire.