Slump-busting blowup dolls in the White Sox locker room: offensive?

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/postedsports/archive/2008/05/04/jays-notebook-clubhouse-dolls-fail-to-perk-up-sox.aspx
Before Sunday’s game, members of the Chicago White Sox illuminati erected a clubhouse shrine designed to revive their team’s flaccid fortunes.

It consisted of two inflatable dolls, faux female of course, with an arrangement of strategically placed bats and two signs reading “You’ve Got To Push” and “Let’s Go White Sox.”

The display was gone after the Toronto Blue Jays handed the Sox their fifth consecutive loss.

Carol Slezak was offended
White Sox blew it by allowing sexist shrine
Guillen, team leaders weren't man enough to say 'this is wrong'

May 6, 2008
Recommend (62)

BY CAROL SLEZAK cslezak@suntimes.com

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen curses this city for failing to give the Sox organization proper respect, but he has no problem with the infantile and sexist "shrine" his players erected in their locker room.

So much for sensitivity training.
» Click to enlarge image
Apparently the sensitivity training classes White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen attended after using a gay slur in 2006 did not include a segment on blow-up dolls.
(Sun-Times file)


CAST YOUR VOTE
Are you offended by blow-up dolls in the Sox clubhouse?

No, this stuff happens in sports

Yes, it's a professional workplace

I care more about the team's six-game skid




White Sox blew it by allowing sexist shrine White Sox doll blow up
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Designed to help the team break out of its slump, the shrine featured two female blow-up dolls surrounded by ''strategically placed'' baseball bats and was accompanied by a sign that read, ''You've Got To Push,'' Canada's National Post reported.

''A few of the bats were doing naughty things,'' Sun-Times beat writer Joe Cowley wrote in his blog. Apparently one of the dolls was propped up by a bat in its rear end. Whether the lewdness was intentional or not, this was inappropriate. As were the blow-up dolls. Period.

Neither Guillen, his players nor anyone else in the Sox organization had attempted to conceal the shrine from reporters before the Sox played the Blue Jays on Sunday at Toronto's Rogers Centre. And on Monday, Guillen defended the display (which had since been taken down), rationalizing that the team treats female reporters respectfully, and besides, he has seen a lot worse during his big-league career. So what's the big deal, anyway?

Apparently the sensitivity training classes Guillen attended after using a gay slur in 2006 did not include a segment on blow-up dolls.

Just so we're clear, had there been any female reporters working Sunday's game -- my understanding is there weren't -- the Sox could have found themselves in legal trouble as a result of the display. It's also possible male reporters were offended by the display.

But this isn't about reporters' feelings. Reporters are conduits to the fans. What a team does behind closed doors is its own business. But once the locker room opens, the franchise is on public display. So, how do you like your team now, Sox fans? Do you think the players respect women? I'm not so sure about that.

Can you imagine the Yankees or Red Sox building a similar shrine in their locker room, in full view of clubhouse visitors? Can you imagine Joe Girardi or Terry Francona allowing that to happen? I can't.

While Guillen has no problem with the shrine, he has definite issues with where the Sox rank in this two-team baseball city. His Sunday sermon proved that.

''The Cubs haven't won in 120 years, and they're the [bleep]ing best,'' he said. ''[Bleep] everybody. We're horse[bleep], and we're going to be horse[bleep] the rest of our lives, no matter how many World Series we win. We are the bitch of Chicago. We're the Chicago bitch.''

Why is he wasting energy on the Cubs? More important, how can he complain about a lack of respect while his players are worshipping blow-up dolls in the locker room? It's absurd.

That's not to let the players off the hook. Who among them thought this was a good idea? How could the so-called team leaders -- Paul Konerko, Jim Thome, Mark Buehrle, Orlando Cabrera and Nick Swisher -- allow this this to happen?

To think there wasn't a single player man enough to stand up and say, ''This is wrong.''

I'm sure the players' moms, wives, sisters and daughters are really proud of them. Way to go, guys. And just so we're clear, the tired ''boys will be boys'' excuse no longer works.

But it starts at the top. I'm pretty sure Guillen was born without a sensitivity chip, but what about general manager Ken Williams and chairman Jerry Reinsdorf? What about commissioner Bud Selig, who ordered Guillen's 2006 sensitivity training? Verbal or not, intended or not, the blow-up doll shrine said a mouthful about how the Sox organization views women. And I don't like what I heard.

Thoughts?

 

Were they teacher blow-up dolls?

 

LOL

 

1. Dumb, bad taste, classless, but historically uninteresting compared to other clubhouse crimes.
2. Easily could--and should--have been done out of view of media.
3. More disturbing, the reader comments that followed.
4. And even more disturbing, the link to a story about Lacy Banks battling brain cancer, which I did not know.

 

Unavailable for comment.

 

No, funny.


I mean, geez, they're, you know, BASEBALL PLAYERS! This is actually pretty low on the tasteless scale for them.

 

Maybe. But it's still stupid, wrong, and easily avoidable.
Fines, please.

 

Good point, 21.

Everyone please keep a good thought for Lacy. He's a very nice man and handling his illnesses with more dignity than I would, for sure.

 

Was that wrong? Should I not have done that? Because, I gotta tell ya, I have to plead ignorance on this thing. If anyone had told me when I was traded here that sodomizing a blow up doll in the locker room is frowned upon, I never would have done it. [/nickswisher]

 

MLB "investigating"

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/934427,mlb050608.article

The Banks story. Very sad, he's incredibly ill. For those who don't know him, he makes a funny cameo in Michael Leahy's book on Michael Jordan...
http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/933397,CST-NWS-lacy06.article

 

Honest question. My wife bowls in a league. I will go and watch and have a beer now and then. Often times the teams they bowl against will play card games with naked guy cards. Now the last thing I really want to see is some muscle freak with a Johnsonville Kielbasa hanging to the ground but I really am not offended and I don't feel as if I am being harassed. My question is...should I feel that way?

 

Being offended is not "should or shouldn't." You either are offended or you're not.