Guillen Fined, Ordered To Sensitivity Training For Comments

MLB Orders Guillen To Attend Sensitivity Training

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig fined White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen an undisclosed amount and ordered him to attend sensitivity training for making offensive comments about Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti. Selig in a statement said Guillen “used language that is offensive and completely unacceptable. Baseball is a social institution with responsibility to set appropriate tone and example. Conduct or language that reflects otherwise will not be tolerated” (MLB). Guillen: “I’m not going to change. One thing I’m going to make clear is I apologize to the community, but to Jay? No chance.” White Sox Chair Jerry Reinsdorf on Chicago’s WBBM-AM said, “There’s no excuse for his choice of words. Although I understand in his country it might have a different meaning, he’s been here a long time and he has to understand how people react. You have to separate that from the issue of the person he’s talking about because that person is, indeed, a piece of garbage. ... If he wants to attack somebody who attacked him, he has to do it in a politically correct way” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 6/23). Guillen said the fine is “good for baseball because I put Bud Selig in a spot he’s not supposed to be” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 6/23).

IS IT ENOUGH? Mariotti said in response to the discipline, “I’m viewing this not as the subject of a slur, but as a sports columnist. And in regard to baseball justice, this seems awfully soft. It’s hard for me to believe a purpose pitch would warrant a one-game suspension and a slur that hurts millions of people would merit only a fine and sensitivity training” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 6/23). USA TODAY’s Jon Saraceno writes Guillen “needs more than some puny, financial slap-on-the-wrist. ... If his superiors do not see fit to stuffing a sanitary sock down his gullet as it regards inappropriate language, then Selig should” (USA TODAY, 6/23).