The Miami Marlins just announced that Ozzie Guillen has been suspended for five games, effective immediately. This came about 20 minutes before his press conference began. A statement accompanied the suspension. After announcing it, it reads:
One gets the sense that this is a preliminary penalty. Designed to try to head off the situation before it gets out of hand. If it settles people down, that’ll be it. If not, more discipline, I suspect. Or termination.
Either way, the statement is a good one, I believe. And, given that this is primarily a local issue, it is probably better that the Marlins are doing this than MLB, eve if I think all of this response is disproportionate in light of both the nature of Guillen’s comments and the fact that he has already issued what I think was a sincere apology.