How about with the facts...

Ozzie was in the Caribbean with his family when the Sox went to the White House. The trip had been planned months in advance. The White House visit got rescheduled 3 different times. Ozzie has visited the White House and president Bush before.

Tony LaRussa has a ring.

Ozzie's right about Mariano Duncan. Why is race even an issue? Why does Ozzie's behavior have anything to do with Duncan's inability to rise above bench coach? Why not blame Tony Pena instead?

I may criticize Ozzie for some of his in-game, and  off the field decisions, but he's still among the best managers in today's game.

Class dismissed.

...he had to interject his little go Venezuela line...he was too busy kissing his beloved President's (That nut case Hugo Chavez's) doopa.

bzzzt..... incorrect, but thanks for playing...

open a newspaper, scour the web, at least do something to take a look at the world around you and maybe empathize. venezuelans as a whole are not exactly the richest people in the world (thanks to corruption on both sides of the political divide there). with estimates ranging from 53%-80% --depending on who you ask-- of the population living in poverty, seeing one of their own showcased on one of the biggest stages in the world (or, at least, this hemisphere) was his way of giving them something to be proud of other than the constant idiotic news reports that Hugo makes. he let his people know that even though he made it in the states, his heart was still with them. i'm proud of ozzie for remaining true to his roots, ass.

besides, with everybody focused on mariotti-gate, you don't hear any more constant questioning of brian anderson's hitting or garland's pitching, now do you? ozzie's a prima donna, but it's taking the pressure off his players to quietly go about their business of winning rather than being under the microscope like the players over at yank-me stadium. i would have preferred a less derogatory way of getting the media to go "omg! ozzie said [fill-in-blank]!", but you can't win them all.

This is a pretty heavy Ozzie hate-fest that has been spurred on, I guess, by the Sox losing a game. In my opinion, it would have been better just to rip Ozzie for his game strategy in that case and be done with it.

Why in the world do you care if Ozzie gives a shout-out to his home country?

I'll go as far as agreeing that Ozzie needs to have a thicker skin. And he shouldn't have disparaged gay people by implying they behave like Jay Mariotti. And his response to Duncan should have been just to shrug it off and realize Duncan was probably responding to a reporter asking "Is Guillen hurting Latinos?" in an attempt to cash in on the media storm. But Guillen is a good manager, remakably so given his lack of experience, and if the worst thing he does is say the wrong thing sometimes then he's a better guy than most people you'll run into.

My unwanted and simplistic answer to Cheat's rhetorical question about race is: I think race is an issue because some people think it's legitimate to judge an entire group of people based on the actions of one person. It's funny we don't see posts about how Brett Myers actions have hurt the chances of people from Florida to make it in the big leagues. Maybe waitonhim can write something up on that next time.