Another part of the problem is determining how much hate was truly in someone’s heart when using the slur in question. Guillen is not baseball’s Fred Phelps because, unlike Rocker and Schott, he has a long-established reputation as someone who isn’t prejudiced, even if he isn’t clear about why someone would be offended by his slur.

It is that lack of clarity that shows Guillen needs more than a little talking-to to learn his lesson. In a column Wednesday by Mariotti’s Sun-Times colleague, Greg Couch, who broke word of Guillen’s slur, Guillen is quoted as saying that in his native Venezuela, “fag” is “not a reference to a person’s sexuality, but to his courage,” because Mariotti is “not man enough to meet me and talk about [things before writing.]” (Under Guillen’s defintion, that word would have applied to Tracey, who was in tears after being on the receiving end of the manager’s dugout tirade last week for failing to hit a Texas batter in retaliation for Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski being hit twice.)

However, Guillen has been in the United States for a quarter-century — surely he knows his insult’s charged meaning, that in America “fag” is not another term for a cigarette.

Couch wrote that Guillen also defended himself by saying “that he has gay friends, goes to WNBA games, went to the Madonna concert and plans to attend [next month’s] Gay Games in Chicago.” I know being put in the situation of but-some-of-my-best-friends-are-black can make you sound ridiculous, but while he was rattling off stereotypical gay activites, Guillen wouldn’t have looked any more patronizing had he thrown in that he collects Lalique, does flower arrangements, and loves to go to Broadway shows — with his mother.

Certainly, Guillen, like many in sports, has an exaggerated view of what constitutes manhood. (Otherwise, why would his ex-wife’s allegations that New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan engaged in an “alternative lifestyle” with a male friend get splashed on the covers of two New York dailies?) Guillen also, like many in sports, appears to lack understanding about the nature of homosexuality — apparently that Madonna concert didn’t do any good. Last year, Guillen was quoted in the Chicago Tribune as joking that someone was “a homosexual, a child molester,” as if they’re the same thing.

Maybe Guillen is just kidding around, Ozzie being f-bombin’ Ozzie. But words matter, especially when they say, whether or not it was the speaker’s intention, that a specific group of people is worth less than everyone else. Guillen can speak as freely as he wants to, but he also has to understand — and everyone in baseball has to understand — that some words carry consequences.

It won’t hinder Guillen’s f-carpet bombing to make him pay, in money or time, for bringing a homophobic slur into a team-columnist dispute. When the TV cameras are packed up and the reporters are hanging around the dugout, Guillen will still have plenty of words left to use if he wants to deliver a withering critique of one of their colleagues.

MORE FROM BASEBALL

Baseball Section Front

Cuban ‘not on prowl’ for Dodgers, or any team Sosa’s skin undergoing color change Blyleven: Pitching to be had beyond Halladay Damon, Matsui and Pettitte all could return Yankees’ Jeter, Teixeira win Gold Gloves Scully to broadcast in 2010, then decide future Baseball GMs pass on expanding instant replay Martin, Herzog, Murtaugh and Mauch on Hall ballot Free agents Circling the Bases: Blogging on news, rumors, buzz Baseball Section Front   Add Baseball headlines to your news reader: