The Red Scare

Last night, I was all set to respond to Ozzie Guillens statement of "respect" for Castro. While I've voiced support for athletes wading into contentious geopolitical issues before- and actually do support Ozzie doing so here, too- his comments were particularly superficial and nonsensical, as if all of global politics can be reduced to the third act of "Scarface". That sucks, and I wanted to say as much. It's not that Ozzie shouldn't have spoken out- I want more sports figures to be as fearless as him! I just also want them to say more interesting, useful things, and will feel the freedom to call them on it when they don't.

Seriously, that was going to be my whole post on the matter last night.

Then, I read today's headlines, and saw that the whole damn world has gone on a jihad about Ozzie.

The Marlins had already apologized, and Ozzie had already walked back his statements. He also spoke to the team's Spanish language broadcasters (both Cubans) to apologize, and will apparently fly back to Miami in the middle of a road trip to apologize (which might be his second or third apology, depending on how you feel about "if anyone was hurt" apologies). I don't really mind any of that; Ozzie, like the rest of us, has to be held to account for what he says.

But now, one columnist has appointed himself the voice of all Cuban Americans and said Ozzie's apologies weren't enough. He may have a point, as a Cuban group is planning to march on Marlins Park and threatening a boycott of the team until Ozzie steps down. And Ken Rosenthal is calling for a one-month suspension.

This is getting ridiculous. Ozzie's statement was stupid and I fully encourage all of the people noted above to criticize him for it, even harshly. But it's not Ozzie's job to say intelligent things about international politics, so why should he lose his job for his failure to do so? I'm not comfortable with firing someone for performing not-their-job poorly. I understand that this creates a PR issue for the Marlins, but I'm even less comfortable with firing someone just because some people are offended by a dumb and irrelevant statement.

Moreover, ruining someone's career because they're not bellicose enough against Communism? Haven't we seen this movie before?

The worst part is, for 90% of baseball fans, this is a non-issue. Did you know Guillen has said superficially nice things about Hugo Chavez, too? No, you didn't, 'cause who cares? He's a baseball manager, not an Assistant Secretary of State. The only reason THIS one is a controversy is because some loudmouths who insist that they speak for every Cuban in Miami demand that every public figure in southern Florida publicly bray for Castro's blood.

But if the loudmouths want to fire a baseball manager because he said something stupid about a topic that has nothing to do with baseball, it pretty well illustrates why they should just be ignored.

UPDATE 4/10/12: Ozzie has been suspended for five games, effective immediately. Team decision, not league, so no appeal. Also, check the bottom of the link- this isn't the first time Ozzie's said nice things about Castro (though I wonder if Castro would agree that you can separate him from his philosophy quite so easily). Not sure how much of a fan I am of any punishment beyond reputation damage here, but I can live with this (and since Jeff Loria definitely thinks about my opinion, that's good). Of course, if your line-up is pretty set and you platoons are fairly well-defined, a manager doesn't need to do much on a day-to-day basis anyway, so we can argue if this is even that much of a punishment.

The 2012 Left Field Line Opening Day Post

A funny thing happened when I was watching "Opening Night" between The Beloved St. Louis Cardinals and the All New, All Different Miami Marlins: I started to forget. I forgot about all of Miami's shiny new baubles. I forgot about the publicly funded stadium and Jeff Lori's shameful exploitation of Muhammad Ali. I even forgot about ESPN's blatant toadying during their interview with Bud Selig.

I just enjoyed the game. By the time Kyle Loshe (of all people!) took his no hitter into the 7th inning (where it would end) I couldn't even remember that I HAD recent issues with baseball.

That continued through today; I was more interested in Strasburg (and Dempster's surprisingly great performance) than in Chicago footing the bill to rehab Wrigley. I was more interested in Prince Fielder than in the Red Sox' scapegoating at the end of last season. I want to hear Vin Sculley call a game more than I want to hear about the Dodgers' new ownership.

Opening Day is just one of those events that cuts through the bullshit and gets you right back to the sport. I don't mean that it "lives up to the hype" or "makes the bullshit worth it"; I mean that once that first pitch leaves the pitcher's hand, the hype is irrelevant, the bullshit is set aside, at least for nine innings. Few other events in sports have that power, even though they all reach for it.

In principal, I don't think it's a bad thing. It really is okay to enjoy a sport in spite of whatever moral compromises the people running the sport may have made. If it's not, then you pretty much have to give up the sport, because there's ALWAYS going to be ways that the people making it happen fail us. And I just don't think that sports fans have to choose between having a social conscience and enjoying a game. Indeed, this blog is, in a lot of ways, about keeping both of those ideas in your head at once (it helps that a lot- I might even say most- of the reactionary bullshit around sports actually DETRACTS from the games themselves).

But, at the same time, the major leagues and organizations certainly count on events like Opening Day to make you forget about their lingering issues. Major League Baseball would certainly appreciate it if you focused solely on Clayton Kershaw's flu and didn't think about the growing problem with alcoholism. Fortunately, history shows that this doesn't work all that well; at best, the major sports actors buy themselves a week's distraction from bad behavior. But still, it complicates our role as fans.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with enjoying a good game, so long as we remember the bullshit when it's over. So enjoy Opening Day. We'll get back to work tomorrow.

Sports Spectacle!

In anticipation of my beloved St. Louis Cardinals' opening game, I've been reading up on the brand new Marlins Park (because clearly, the Cardinals will do better if I know the exact dimensions of the right field wall). Well I'd like to tell you I've definitively determined how the park will play, the fact is, I'm getting awfully distracted by stuff like this.

And this.

And hell, the new uniforms, too.

All of these things are coming in for their fair share of abuse right now. And I won't deny that they're gimmicks. I won't deny that they're silly, gaudy distractions.

Nor will I deny that I absolutely love them.

Okay, first caveat: I'm setting aside the uniforms. Those are just a mess, but it IS the exact kind of mess that seems perfect for Miami, so....partial credit? Anyway, Ozzie Guillen in neon orange is worth the price of admission.

As for the rest of it, well, what's wrong with silly, gaudy distractions? Clearly, the world of sports has decided "nothing", or else we wouldn't have mascots, cheerleaders, in stadium music, concessions, and on and on and on. Is the Marlins' outfield monstrosity really appreciably worse than Bernie Brewer sliding into a pool of beer? Is it any sillier than the Sausage races? Is it anymore ostentatious than this?

(Wait a minute, what the fuck is wrong in Milwaukee?)

There might be other reasons the Marlins' new gimmicks are bad. For one thing, it sure would've been nice if they would have thought about those aquariums ahead of time, rather than just testing them after the fact by having Gaby Sanchez wing a few balls at them. But if it all works okay, I don't see why it can't be colorful little diversion between plays.

In general, we need to spend a lot less time telling sports teams to be serious and to present themselves just like everyone else. More teams need things that are uniquely their own, and to find those things, the teams can't be afraid to look silly. 'Cause if you can't have fun running a baseball team, you need to find a new line of work.