Guillen Laughs Off Hunter’s Racist Comments

Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen took the bull by the horns and made a joke out of Torii Hunter’s racist comments.  In case you haven’t read what he said in a USA Today column:

“People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they’re African-American,” Los Angeles Angels center fielder Torri Hunter says. “They’re not us. They’re impostors.”

“Even people I know come up and say, ‘Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero? Is he a black player?’ I say, ‘Come on, he’s Dominican. He’s not black.’ ”

Baseball’s African-American population is 8%, compared with 28% for foreign players on last year’s opening-day rosters.

“As African-American players, we have a theory that baseball can go get an imitator and pass them off as us,” Hunter says. “It’s like they had to get some kind of dark faces, so they go to the Dominican or Venezuela because you can get them cheaper. It’s like, ‘Why should I get this kid from the South Side of Chicago and have Scott Boras represent him and pay him $5 million when you can get a Dominican guy for a bag of chips?’

“I’m telling you, it’s sad.”

He has since recanted and issued a quasi-apology:

“What troubles me most was the word ‘impostors’ appearing in reference to Latin American players not being black players. It was the wrong word choice, and it definitely doesn’t accurately reflect how I feel and who I am.”

I guess that’s because the majority of the best baseball players in MLB and some of his teammates are Latino.

Here’s what Guillen had to say:

“I was laughing because when he said, `They go there and sign for potato  chips,’ I said, `Well, we’ve got Chapman. They gave him $12 million. [Cincinnati actually agreed to a $30.25 million, six-year contract with pitcher Aroldis Chapman.] We’ve got [prospect Dayan] Viciedo. They gave him $10 million. I remember in my time, one scout goes [to Venezuela and] 30 players show up. Now, 30 scouts go there and one player shows up. In our country, we play baseball. That’s no choice. Here you can play basketball, you can be another athlete, you can do so many things when you have the opportunity. And that’s why there’s not many [African-American] players out there.”

Since the pre-Jackie Robinson dark days until now, baseball (as Mike Wilbon called it yesterday on PTI) has become a meritocracy, where positions are awarded based on talent.  We don’t care that Albert Pujols is from the Dominican Republic.  We just want to put him in the line-up and see him hit in the .330’s with over 40 dingers and 130 RBIs, while playing Gold Glove first base.

And we didn’t care that potential Hall of Famer Jeff Kent was a jerk who fought with teammates, scolded younger players and didn’t play baseball to make friends.  He was in the lineup to hit.

And unlike in football, where players like JaMarcus Russell get chance after chance because he was the overall number one draft pick, seemingly nobody really cares where anyone is drafted in baseball.  They just want to know if you can play.

Guillen is right when he says that the ballplayers may be signed for a bag of chips, but they leave with a lot of dough.

Albert was the 402nd overall pick in the 1999 draft and signed for a $60K bonus.  But he proved himself on the field.  Over and over again.  And he’s getting paid handsomely for his achievements.

Torii Hunter needs to grab a big hot steamy cup of shut the f*** up.