Baseball manager Ozzie Guillen suspended for praising Fidel Castro

It sounds like something that would be published in the Onion: the manager of the Miami Marlins baseball team has been suspended for five games for making positive comments about Fidel Castro to Time magazine.

But this story is true. Ozzie Guillen, who was born in Venezuela, has apologized after his remarks, which caused an uproar in Miami, a city that's home to many Cuban expatriates.

This is the type of thing you would expect at the height of the Cold War, but come on folks, this is 2012. Castro isn't even in power anymore, Joe McCarthy has been dead for more than a half-century, and the House Un-American Activities Committee has been disbanded.

But still, the paranoia over communism continues south of the border.

The furor erupted after Guillen told the U.S. newsmagazine that he "loves" Castro and admires his resilience.

That prompted Miguel Saavedra, head of a group called Vigilia Mambisa, to call for a boycott of the Marlins until Guillen was forced to step down.

Baseball is big business, and the Marlins have just built a new stadium. Demagoguery wins. Free speech loses. And this morning, America looks pretty silly to many folks around the world.

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.