"If I hurt anybody with what I called him, I apologise, but I wasn't talking about those people, '' said Guillen. "I don't have anything against those people. In my country you call someone something like that and it's not the same as in this country. I was talking strictly about Jay Mariotti (a Chicago Sun-Times columnist). Jay's a piece of shit. He's garbage, still garbage, going to die as garbage. Period."

Twenty-five years after moving to America from Venezuela, Guillen's attempt to explain his outburst by claiming something had been lost in translation failed to pass muster. To add insult to injury, he went on to further explain that he couldn't possibly be accused of homophobia because he once went to a Madonna concert, had been to WNBA matches, uses a gay hairdresser, and intends to attend the forthcoming Gay Games in Chicago.

"Calling one man a 'fag' demeans a whole class of people, " said Kevin Boyer, vice-chairman of Gay Games Chicago.

"Personally, I accept Ozzie Guillen's apology, but with the understanding that the word 'fag' needs to leave his vocabulary if he is a true friend to the gay community and a supporter of events like the Gay Games."

Somewhere between the initial comment and the rather ham-fisted attempt at an apology, a local spat between a manager and a hack caught the attention of cable news networks and the national papers. Less than nine months after leading a multi-ethnic Chicago White Sox outfit to their first World Series in 86 years, Guillen became the posterboy for the latent homophobia that appears to be the norm in American professional sport. Baseball may be the only game where a player . . . then New York Met Mike Piazza . . . called a press conference a couple of years back just to explicitly confirm he was heterosexual.

"Ozzie Guillen used language that is offensive and completely unacceptable, " said Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig. "Baseball is a social institution with responsibility to set appropriate tone and example. Conduct or language that reflects otherwise will not be tolerated. The use of slurs embarrasses the individual, the club and the game."

Having failed to punish Guillen for making similar gay slurs in the company of journalists at Yankee Stadium last year, Selig fined him an undisclosed sum of money this time round, and ordered him to undergo sensitivity training. With his critics clamouring for a suspension of some sort, this wasn't the harshest penalty, especially given that the courses designed to battle prejudice are regarded as a joke by most people. Even Guillen himself responded to reporters' questions about when he might actually be sitting down for tutoring by asking, "What class? What is it?"

In a sport where most managers are grey, cerebral types who cut stoic figures during the highest drama and rarely say anything of consequence, 42-year-old Guillen is a hyperactive, foul-mouthed loose cannon dubbed The Blizzard of Oz.

The first Latino to lead a team to a title, he criticises his own players in public, lambasts the Chicago fans if attendances are down, admits the team stinks when it does, and occasionally entertains journalists by reading them his personal emails. An unorthodox approach, it helped turn one of baseball's most celebrated losing franchises around in just his second season in charge.

Success brought Guillen into the national spotlight and portrayed him as a fascinating character full of contradictions.

After the historic triumph, he brought the World Series trophy back to Venezuela where he went to visit and was pictured hugging President Hugo Chavez. Having spent part of his down time hanging with an individual ranked just below Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein on the US government's list of international bad boys, Guillen also used the off-season to finalise his own American citizenship and to declare his love for the country.

Widely praised for his manmanagement skills on the way to the series win, he's recently been slaughtered for his callous treatment of a rookie pitcher.

When Sean Tracey wouldn't carry out an order to intentionally hit an opponent with a 95 mph fastball in a common retaliation move, Guillen gave him a tongue-lashing on the bench and then demoted him to the minor leagues. Mariotti's column on the subject prompted the foul-mouthed tirade that spawned this whole affair. Loved by most journalists for his loquaciousness, Guillen's problems with Mariotti stem from the reporter penning savage critiques and then not showing up at games to look those he attacks in the eye.

"Guillen's beef with me involves his belief that if I criticise him, I should rush down to the ballpark immediately and let him litter me with insults, " wrote Mariotti. "If that sounds like high-school macho nonsense, realise it's the general mentality of baseball clubhouses.

Imagine a restaurant critic not liking an Italian joint, then having to show up so the chef can throw meatballs at him. I might cede to Guillen's wishes, by the way, if Sox management through time had been more professional in controlling numerous incidents in which I was threatened physically in their clubhouse."

On Thursday, Guillen said he's looking forward to attending the Gay Games on July 17th. No word yet on whether Mariotti will cover the event.