Miami Marlins skipper Ozzie Guillen is only four games into his tenure as Marlins manager, but he's already living up to his controversial reputation after he had to backtrack on saying he loved Fidel Castro.
Guillen told Time Magazine he loved the Cuban dictator -- a comment that does not sit well with Miami's large Cuban population, where anti-Castro sentiment is high.
"I love Fidel Castro," Guillen told Time in an upcoming issue of the magazine.
Ozzie Guillen later said he meant that he respected the former Cuban dictator for his longevity despite the bulls-eye on his back.
"I respect Fidel Castro. You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that [expletive] is still here," he said.
Guillen clarified that he was not saying he admired Castro's beliefs, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
"I will apologize if I hurt somebody's feelings, or I hurt somebody's thought," Guillen told reporters after the Marlins-Reds game on Saturday. "I want them to know I'm against everything 100 percent -- I repeat it again -- the way this man [been] treating people for the last 60 years."
Ozzie Guillen's remarks on Castro are not the only time Guillen has landed in hot water over his words.
When Ozzie Guillen managed the Chicago White Sox from 2004 to 2011, talking without a filter made him a controversial figure in the Windy City.
In June 2006, Guillen called Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti a "fag" because he disagreed with Mariotti's criticism over how Guillen handled a roster move.
Guillen apologized for the slur but still took a dig at Mariotti.
"I shouldn't have mentioned the name that was mentioned, but I'm not going to back off of Jay," he told the media after his remarks became public. ""The word I used, I should have used something different. A lot of people's feelings were hurt and I didn't mean it that way. "Jay, I think I made this guy a lot of money and he's famous. If not for Ozzie Guillen, no one would have heard of him. If I hurt anybody with what I called him, I apologize."
Fast forward four years later and Ozzie's controversial remarks set off another firestorm of criticism.
In August 2010, Guillen argued baseball's Japanese players are treated better than their Latino counterparts because they are given translators while Latino players have to fend for themselves.
"Don't take this wrong, but they take advantage of us," Guillen said of how Major League Baseball treats Latino players. "We bring a Japanese player and they are very good and they bring all these privileges to them. We bring a Dominican kid ... go to the minor leagues, good luck. Good luck. And it's always going to be like that. It's never going to change."
