MIAMI — Daniel Martinez is willing to forgive Ozzie
Guillen. He believes the five-game suspension for the Marlins manager was
suitable for the comment he made praising Fidel Castro.
But if Martinez ever has a chance to talk to the Guilen, he would have some
pointed remarks.
"My comment to him would be he knows nothing," Martinez said through
a translator. "You have to experience personally living in Cuba."
Martinez, 41, certainly experienced it. He lived his entire life in Cuba before
he won a lottery that enabled him to come to the United States about a year
ago. In 1989, Martinez was imprisoned for nine months in Cuba for being caught
trying to take a raft out of the country to freedom in America. He was in a
large cell that held about 40 and said food was scarce during his
incarceration.
"He is the king of bad," Martinez said of Castro.
But there was the baseball-loving Martinez sitting in the stands down the
left-field line for Miami's 5-2 win over the Chicago Cubs at Marlins Park on
Tuesday night. He let out a resounding cheer when his favorite Miami player,
Hanley Ramirez, crushed a three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth that
broke a 2-2 tie.
The game marked the return of Guillen from his suspension for saying in a Time
magazine article he has admiration for the Cuban dictator. Guillen apologized
for the remark during an April 10 news conference before serving his penalty.
Guillen was back Tuesday, but he didn't quite know what to expect on his way to
the game.
"From my house to here is only about 12 to 15 minutes," Guillen said.
"It seemed like two hours."
But the night ending up going as well as Guillen could have expected. There
were no evident signs of protest. The crowd of 24,544 was the smallest in five
Marlins home games this season, but that might not be a gauge of anything since
the first game was the long-awaited opener and the next three were during a
weekend.
Marlins closer Heath Bell joked after Tuesday's win that the only real catcalls
heard were when he went out for the ninth inning and fans yelled, "Don't
blow it." Bell, a ballyhooed free-agent signee who had blown his first two
save opportunities, notched his first save by pitching a perfect ninth.
"I appreciate the way the people were (Tuesday), not just for me,"
Guillen said. "I just think for the Marlins in general. ... That's pretty
nice to see people still supporting the ballclub and put Ozzie Guillen's
problems away from the ballclub and the Marlins organization."
Several Cuban-Americans in the stands spoke of being hurt by Guillen's comments
but that it was time to move on. That's why they were at Tuesday's game.
"We're here," said Ozzie Perez, 48, who had brought his camera to
record some protests and was surprised there weren't any. "Life goes on.
Everybody makes mistakes in life. I think he learned from this mistake."
Perez, who runs a used-car dealership in Miami, attended the game with
Martinez, who does maintenance work for the dealership. Martinez said it's hard
to keep Cubans away from baseball.
"There isn't any Cuban who doesn't like baseball," Martinez said.
"They're all born with it and they love baseball."
As for loving Castro, hardly. That’s why there was a big problem after Guillen
was quoted as saying, "I love Fidel Castro."
That comment rankled Martinez. He’ll never again return to Cuba, where his
relatives remain. He misses family members greatly, but said some will visit
him in Miami.
"If I begin to tell you everything that I could really say and feel about
Fidel Castro, we won't have enough time before this game ends," said
Martinez, speaking shortly before Ramirez's blast. "People need liberty
and you have to have your freedom of speech. You don't have that in Cuba. You
say something about (Castro) and he'll have you shot. There's no freedom."
While there are some who have said Guillen was exercising his freedom of
speech, it's not necessarily a right for employment, especially with a team
that just opened a spanking new ballpark in the middle of Miami's Little Havana
district.
But Guillen said before Tuesday's game he never considered
it a possibility he would be fired.
"For that?" Guillen said. "You know what, I never worry about
being fired from my job, no matter here, there or any place."
As for another sort of penalty, Guillen said he has done that to himself.
"I put myself on probation," said the Venezuelan. "Me, nobody
else. Probation about grow up and be better and be careful. ... I don't think I
want to put myself in the same situation again in a community with Latino
people. I'm Latino. That's the worst feeling ever. ... I don't want to go through
that feeling again."
Guillen said he spent his suspension in Miami and got out into the community.
He said he received plenty of support, including from a Cuban-American man who
rents him his house.
Guillen, who has a four-year contract, vowed to do a "lot of things"
during his time in Miami working in the community to show how sorry he is.
Marlins president David Samson said the team soon will announce donations to
groups for "human rights and causes related to Cuban-Americans."
The usually-gregarious Guillen met with Samson on Tuesday. One key thing was
stressed by his boss.
"I said to Ozzie in a very personal moment, 'We want you to not change the
way you manage and the way you are. We want you to think (that) anything other
than baseball is probably not funny. But everything baseball, even if it's
negative, can be funny,'" Samson said. "And that is what we talked
about. And he agreed to focus on baseball."
So don't expect any more political comments from Guillen. But baseball will
continue to be his passion.
"I want to spend three hours of my life where I want to be," Guillen
said about the thrill of being back in the dugout. "That's Ozzie Guillen.
That's what I want, what I love the best."
What Guillen really loves is three hours that includes a victory. That's what
his players gave him Tuesday.
"To get a win in his first day back, I think that leaves a good taste in
everybody's mouth," catcher John Buck said. "If (Guillen) said he's
sorry and he's going to do something about it, he's going to and he is. I think
(people) will see that he is sincere so hopefully that is enough to move
on."
Guillen is certainly ready to move on. He was asked if he had spent any time
during his suspension reading about Castro to get a better understanding of the
dictator.
"That's the last thing I want to read, believe me," Guillen said
while laughing. "I don't even want to think about it."
Nevertheless, Martinez wouldn't mind telling Guillen just what Castro is all
about.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at christomasson@hotmail.com
or on Twitter @christomasson
