Ozzie Guillen and Bobby Valentine's Rants Are Becoming All Too Regular

Major League Baseball managers are a different breed, and recently two of them—Ozzie Guillen and Bobby Valentine—have made some questionable comments.

Baseball managers are the only coaches in professional sports who aren’t even called coaches, they’re the only coaches who don team uniforms and they are often the most polarizing figures in all of sports. 

There is an alarming number of managers, especially in today’s media world, who go out of their way to make themselves bigger than their players, bigger than their team and bigger than the game. 

Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen has always been one of the most outspoken managers in baseball. He has never been one to shy away from the spotlight, or the criticism, but on April 9, Guillen put his foot so deep in his mouth, even he couldn’t charmingly joke and curse his way out of it.

Guillen returns to the Marlins dugout tonight after serving a five-game suspension for his controversial comments about Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, whom Miami Herald columnist and Cuban-American Dan Le Batard called “our Hitler” in an interview with ESPN.

Guillen expressed his praise and respect for Castro in a Time Magazine article that couldn’t have been more loathed by the people of the city his team represents.

And the comment threads exploded.

Guillen apologized for his comments in a press conference the next day, but he also publicly praised Castro in 2008. He knew what he was getting himself into and welcomed the publicity. 

Guillen’s latest rant is just one of several examples of him making himself bigger than the game. Routinely, he goes out of his way to criticize or embarrass someone or something when something happens that he doesn’t like.

Guillen left the Chicago White Sox to become the Marlins manager, and his former players said they’re happy Guillen is out of sight and out of mind. 

According to MLB.com, White Sox players said they were relived with Guillen left, and were happy to focus on their performance and the game. 

Those questions are now being asked to Marlins players, who are answering things about their manager, rather than about their attempted resurgence. 

The Marlins have a new name, a new stadium and almost an entirely new team, but all people on South Beach are talking about is their new manager. 

Another manager causing distractions for his team is Bobby Valentine, who returned to MLB this season as manager of the Boston Red Sox, after spending six years managing Japan’s Chiba Lotte Marines and the last two seasons as an analyst for ESPN. 

Valentine’s antics have been much maligned during his tenure in the Major Leagues, and he didn’t waste any time causing drama for his new team, criticizing one of the Red Sox's best players, Kevin Youkilis. 

In a TV interview Sunday, Valentine called out Youkilis for not being "as physically or emotionally into the game as he has been in the past for some reason." 

Red Sox second baseman and team leader Dustin Pedroia quickly came to Youkilis’ defense. 

Pedroia told a Boston radio station, "I don't really understand what Bobby's trying to do. But that's really not the way we go about our stuff here. I'm sure he'll figure that out soon." 

Valentine quickly recanted, apologizing in a press conference the next day, but the headlines were made. 

He knows what he’s doing. He revels in the spotlight, and has been doing it for a long time. 

In 1999, while managing the New York Mets, Valentine was ejected from a game, but rather than going back to the clubhouse, he put on a remedial disguise and hid in the corner of the dugout.

He didn’t do it because he wanted to stay involved in a regular season game, or to get back at the umpire who gave him the boot. He did it because he knew the cameras would catch him and he wanted people to talk about it. 

Valentine was later fined $5,000 and suspended two games, which allowed for more discussion about him.

In his mind, he won.

It’s not just in baseball, but because of the nature of the game, the length of the season and the way calls are argued, baseball managers’ rants stand out, and while their child-like tantrums are sometimes funny, it’s giving the league an ever-growing black eye. 

Managers need to stop thinking the game is about them. They aren’t generating advertising revenue or auditioning for talk shows. 

They are paid to guide, teach, make decisions and win games, period.