Did Ozzie Guillen take the correct action when confronted with a racist t-shirt about himself

[wndycty]

Part of me thinks he did the right thing in that he drew attention to it, however his light hearted approach may give bigots the wrong idea that racist t-shirts belong in the market place.

Ozzie buys into humor of T-shirt spoof
Guillen shares laugh with Piniella over 'mowing' joke

June 18, 2009
BY KYLE KOSTER [e-mail]

Ozzie Guillen might not like coming to Wrigley Field, but the White Sox manager seemed to be having a good time there Wednesday.

Before the Sox' 4-1 victory over the Cubs, he greeted Cubs manager Lou Piniella on the field and lifted up his black warmup jacket to reveal a Cubbie-blue T-shirt that read, ''Ozzie Mows Wrigley.'' The two shared a hearty laugh about Guillen's new purchase, which he made that morning outside the stadium that he says makes him ''puke.''

Rich Callow, the vendor who sold the shirt to Guillen, said he saw Guillen arriving at the ballpark.

''I told Ozzie, 'Hey you want to see a T-shirt?''' Callow said. ''He came over and looked at it and started laughing. He liked it a lot and wanted to buy it.''

Callow said Guillen didn't pay for the shirt himself but had someone else come back outside to pay the $20 price.

Callow didn't know Guillen intended to wear it.

The shirt features a caricature of a smiling Guillen pushing a lawnmower with the Wrigley scoreboard in the background.

''If I made a shirt like that, they would have me back on the couch for my sensitivity training,'' Guillen joked.
-snip-

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1628644,CST-SPT-shirt18.article

[tishaLA]

1. Guillen is an unabashed homophobe

and he got in trouble for his homophobic shit. So he uses this as a way of diminishing calling a player a "fag." He's a creep.

[tuckessee]

2. Guillen is a raging psychopathic maniac w/ a short fuse.

I like those qualities in a baseball manager. I wish Dusty Baker were more like him. :-)

[wndycty]

3. No comments about the racist t-shirt?

:kick:

[AngryAmish]

4. There are a lot of Venezuelan gardeners around here...

[texasleo]

5. Gays > Latinos, according to liberals.

:shrug:

[tuckessee]

6. I think he handled it correctly.

Turned it into a joke. The Cubs faithful were probably trying to get a rise out him and he totally deflated them.

He could even turn the meaning around by saying something like "Yep, there's me mowing the Cubs down. Now my players will come along with a broom and sweep them up."

[wndycty]

9. Actually he also said

"I might cut lawns," Guillen said with a laugh, "but I don't stand in the rain selling T-shirts."

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=92323599113&h=EM2zh&u=gD0GK&ref=mf

[Gemini Cat]

7. LOL!

[cbdo2007]

8. I think he handled it perfectly.