Ozzie Guillén shames MLB on Latino relations, but is this just another rant?

Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen argues with umpire crew chief Gary Cederstrom after being ejected from the game following a bench clearing brawl in the fifth inning against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday, August 3, 2008, at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. (John Sleezer/Kansas City Star/MCT)

Outspoken White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén kicked over the cultural ant hill last week with his public commentary on how Latino baseball players aren’t getting the same treatment as Japanese players.

Does his argument have merit, or is it more of his usual verbal artillery?

“Very bad. I say, why do we have Japanese interpreters and we don’t have a Spanish one? I always say that. Why do they have that privilege and we don’t? Don’t take this wrong, but they take advantage of us. We bring a Japanese player and they are very good and they bring all of these privileges to them. We bring a Dominican kid . . . go to the minor leagues, good luck. Good luck. And it’s always going to be like that. It’s never going to change. But that’s the way it is.

“I’m the only one to teach the Latinos about not to use [performance-enhancing drugs in the MLB]. I’m the only one and Major League Baseball doesn’t [care]. All they care about [is] how many times I argue with the umpires, what I can say to the media. But I’m the only one in baseball to come up to the Latino kids and say not to use this and I don’t get any credit for that. They look at you and say, ‘Good for you, Ozzie.’” I did it for the Latino kids . . . I want to help those kids.”

He stated that his rhetoric was “filtered” by the media, saying they isolated his specific comments on the plight of the Latino baseball player. However, his words come at a time when the Federal Government is challenging the state of Arizona in court over immigration and profiling issues; when congressmen and women are trying to change the 14^th Amendment of the Constitution in order to eliminate “dump and run” babies born in the United States by immigrant parents; and when there is an overall sense of tension between many Latino and non-Hispanic citizens of this country.

“Sport is an important barometer of assumptions about ‘race,’ ethnicity, and Aboriginality,” wrote Daryl Adair in his introduction to the book Sport, “Race,” Ethnicity, and Aboriginality: Narratives of Difference and Diversity. His comments are given particular meaning in this instance, where Guillén, the first Latino manager to win a World Series, is one man in a league where 30% of the players and managers call themselves Latino—a rarity in the professional sporting world.

What about Guillén’s comments? Do they have merit? Horacio Ruiz, the leading editor and a contributor to Richard Lapchick’s book, 100 Campeones: Latino Groundbreakers Who Paved the Way in Sport, said, “I don’t completely agree with what he is saying, but I think he does bring up many valid points and has gotten the baseball community to talk about an issue that needs more attention.”