The Patriot Post® · Ozzie Meets Damas de Blanco

I hope you’ve never heard of a shadowy group called Damas de Blanco and I pray that you never will. Translated from Spanish, it means “Ladies In White” and every Sunday in Havana, Cuba, the wives and female relatives of current and former political prisoners – known as the Damas de Blanco – walk from the Church of Saint Rita down Quinta Avenue in silent protest. Just so you’ll know, St. Rita is the patron saint of lost causes.

I first heard of the Damas de Blanco right before Pope Benedict XVI visited Cuba last month. That’s when the Cuban police notoriously pounced on most of the Damas de Blanco group during their Sunday walk and took them away, hiding them from the world’s media until the Pope finished visiting Fidel Castro. Why? The ruthless and shameless dictator is solely responsible for the reason the women walk – week after week, rain or shine, each and every Sunday to protest Castro’s tyranny and merciless rule.

Face it, the last thing on earth Fidel wanted the Pope to ask about was the Damas de Blanco. Not even Castro could ‘man up’ to such a conversation as that with the Pope. Now – let me ask you a question – how do you think Florida Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen felt yesterday when, just before he publicly and shamefully apologized to a shocked south Miami, the Marlins arranged little “a warm up” with the Damas de Blanco, of all people?

In case you came in late, the zany Guillen put south Florida’s Cuban community on its ear last weekend when, in an interview with Time Magazine, the brash Guillen told reporters, “I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that (expletive) is still here.”

Oh, Lord have mercy! That’s a little like going to Israel and saying, “You know, I don’t think Hitler was that bad a guy … he had some good ideas about some things.” Are you kidding me? The Marlins have just opened a new ball park in Miami’s Little Havana, of all places, and the idea of having the first Latino to ever win a World Series as the club’s new skipper has just exploded in baseball’s face like an atomic bomb.

Guillen, a native of Venezuela, immediately realized his gaffe and – after a sleepless Sunday night – called in the sports writers travelling with the Marlins in Philadelphia on Monday to profusely apologize but on Tuesday was whisked back to Miami where he wept with shame and was handed a five-game suspension without pay. But it was before he faced the media that the worst happened. A somber crowd from Damas de Blanco was waiting for him.

You need to understand about Ozzie. The writers who covered the White Sox in Chicago and the ones who are now with the Marlins day-by-day say he’s a hoot. The writers claim that in the first five minutes of an interview he’ll make you laugh three times and say at least one thing that is so off-the-wall you can’t believe it. In the Time interview, for instance, he casually mentioned he gets drunk every night. He’s known for stuff like that.

So it was before yesterday’s tearful and remorseful press conference when Ozzie went into a room where women dressed in white – whose family members are in Cuban prisons – heard him apologize face-to-face. Guillen later said it didn’t go well at all. Actually, the manager of the Major League Florida Marlins bawled like a baby.

“I am a strong person and when I cry, I really cry,” Guillen said. “They understood me and I spoke to them honestly. When a person speaks to another person, they look in their eyes to know if they are being sincere. I was unable to look at their faces. It wasn’t because I was lying but because I was so embarrassed about what I had done that I could not look them in the eyes.”

At the press conference that followed, Guillen was clearly shaken. “I hurt a lot of people’s feelings, a lot of victims,” Guillen said. “I’ve apologized twice and I meant it. Today is Tuesday, April 10. Today is the last time in my life that I will speak about politics,” Guillen said.

“I know there are plenty of people who have tried to get me to talk about politics in the past. Hopefully this horrible situation has taught me to not speak about things that I don’t know about. What I was trying to say is that a person who has been in power for so long and has hurt so many people can still be in power … I’m not blaming the journalist, I’m blaming myself.”

Guillen’s remorse seemed to have no limits. “I say a lot of things and I never apologize but now I have to because I did the wrong thing. I’m behind the Cuban community. … How am I going to make it better? … I’m going to show the community that I support them 100 percent.”

Guillen, 47, begged the community not to take it out on the ball club. “Because I made a mistake, a big one, don’t take it out on the ballclub,” Guillen said. “Mr. Loria, Mr. Samson, the Marlins, Larry Beinfest, the players, they have nothing to do with this. I will take full responsibility for it. Continue to support the Marlins, the players; they have nothing to do with this.”

Guillen’s five-game suspension started immediately. He returned as the skipper on April 17, which ironically was the 51st anniversary of what some will remember as the “Bay of Pigs” invasion, for whatever that’s worth.

The Marlin players seemed relieved. “He was sincere in his apology,” said first baseman Gaby Sanchez, a native of Miami whose father was born in Cuba. “It was good to see him out there apologizing, trying to set everything straight. He looked very sincere to me. We just have to move forward and keep going.”

That’s it – the Marlins gotta’ keep going. Just like the Damas de Blanco.