This time, though, he should be reprimanded severely.

The Windy City skipper is upset about negative columns written by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti.

Guillen recently called Mariotti a derogatory name for a gay person.

Guillen since has apologized, saying that in his native Venezuela, the term relates to someone lacking courage.

The third-year manager then said he still shouldn’t have used the comment because of its connotation in the United States.

On Thursday, commissioner Bud Selig fined Guillen an undisclosed amount of money and ordered him to attend sensitivity training for making offensive comments.

This is a good start, and at least Guillen has apologized, but it seems odd that he would use such a derogatory name. Surely he’s familiar with the connotation of the term in America.

Mariotti certainly has the ability to provoke people through some of his comments, and I’m sure he is no angel either, but such name-calling shouldn’t be tolerated.

If a racial slur would have come out of Guillen’s mouth, a more severe reprimand would have been handed down. Rightfully so, but society should get the point that Guillen’s word choice also is very degrading and shouldn’t be tolerated.

The name game

During the NCAA tournament in the spring, Bradley and Pittsburgh faced off, which provided an interesting CBS graphic during the broadcast.

Abbreviations for the two teams were “Brad” and “Pitt.” Bradley was the lower-seeded team, so “Brad” was listed first, with “Pitt” below it, which allowed for “Brad Pitt” to appear on the screen throughout the game. Though the actor has no association with either school, it’s interesting that while watching the NBA Finals between Dallas and Miami in recent weeks, I noticed the abbreviations for the two teams — “Mia” and “Dal.”

Interestingly enough, Mia and Dallas are the daughter and son of Tonganoxie teachers Matt and LeAnn Bond. Although little brother’s team had a seemingly comfortable 2-0 lead on Miami, older sister’s team prevailed with four straight wins for the Heat’s first NBA title in franchise history.