Ozzie Guillen’s comments about Fidel Castro proved watershed for Miami Marlins in the season-Part 4
He must realise that no matter what kind of personality traits he possesses, not changing as per the requirements of professionalism will not be condoned by anyone.
If he feels it is not possible for him, he is better off abandoning baseball and try his luck somewhere else.
Instead of becoming a threat for the millions whose emotions are at the mercy of his statements, he must find a place where he cannot hurt anyone.
Frankly speaking, the Marlins should have sacked him on the day when the Castro controversy surfaced. That incident should have been taken as an opportunity to draw a line between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour of a manager.
He should not have been allowed a second chance as the officials knew that Guillen had been brash and irresponsible in the past.
Although he was suspended for couple of games, it was not enough to set the standards. His retention was like aggravation of the pain of those who were affected by him.
Marlins thought that without Guillen their preparations will suffer and whatever they planned will not be implemented properly. They feared that their dreams for the season will meet its demise before they actually materialise.
Perhaps they attached the bulk of their hopes with Guillen while they completely ignored their players on the roster.
The fact the Marlins did not fire Guillen despite the fact his actions called for such treatment demonstrates the degree to which they were relying on him.
One man cannot become a source of sustenance of a club. Even if the Marlins had sacked Guillen, it will not have played havoc to their objectives in the season.
Immediately announcing a replacement for Guillen and making sure that everything goes smoothly without distraction will have put the club on the right direction in the beginning of the season.
Even with a manager not as capable as Guillen, they will have performed better. At-least their players will have remained outside the realm of political discussion and the germs of Guillen’s controversy-prone attitude will not have spilled over to the rest
of the team.
Regardless of the amount of talent the players of a club have, they need to be dedicated to the task. Unless the chances of potential distractions are eliminated, focus on the real task cannot be maintained.
Most of the best teams around the world are immensely conscious of the fact that concentration of their players is not hampered. They can take any decision to ascertain this because providing a level playing field to the players is a very important concept.
While doing so, they hardly care for the short-term results and if they find some troublemakers in the team they immediately get rid of them.
Sometimes they launch such steps that prove disastrous for the performance of the team but in the long run they end up shaping up a unit which is always focused on the task and never does anything unrelated to the sport.
Unfortunately the Marlins missed the opportunity to define the standards of appropriate behaviour. By keeping Guillen, not only did they offend fans, they could not watch their team putting up an impressive performance in the season.
It will be hoped that the Marlins have learnt a lesson from the whole episode of Castro and resultant failure of their team. To what extent they change their strategy will be seen in years to come.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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