How Lucky White Sox Fans Are To Have Ozzie Guillen

In our present world of sports journalism coaches and athletes are prepped on how to avoid making controversial or inflammatory public statements. They calculate their choice of words like a skilled liar on the witness stand. But, shining through all of that dull, lifeless, gray blah-blah-blah is a beacon of light.

Ladies and gentlemen, for your enjoyment let me present Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. Whether you follow major league baseball closely or not, you have to love the entertainment Guillen provides. He’s certainly not like Casey Stengel, who for decades was the lovable “Old Professor” of baseball, known for his cock-eyed views on life as well as his quotes. Casey often left listeners with their heads tilted and brows wrinkled in their effort to comprehend what he had just said.

You may know that Guillen concluded his playing career in 2000 after having played 12 of his 16-years as a shortstop for the White Sox. In 2004 he got his shot to manage in the majors by being named skipper of his beloved Pale Hose. Just one year later Guillen became the first Latin-born manager to lead his team to a World Series title.

A native of Venezuela, Guillen has a passion for the game, his Latin blood runs hot, and he is not afraid to speak his mind. That’s what makes Guillen both entertaining and refreshing at the same time.

Unlike Stengel, there is nothing left to interpretation with Guillen. It’s all pretty plain and clear. For example, in early August, after Guillen’s team had three of their batters hit by opposing pitchers in one game, he went on a rant. He put the rest of the American League on notice. You hit one of his guys, you’ll pay. Not only will it be an eye for an eye, but it might be a two for one proposition! Guillen went so far as to say that he doesn’t care if the league fines him for ordering his pitchers to retaliate for his players being hit. He was essentially taunting future opposing teams, as well as the league office. When I saw the video clip of this it reminded me of one scene in the silly comedy movie classic, “STRIPES”--when Francis “Psycho” Soyer repeatedly threatened Bill Murray, John Candy, and the other military goofs in the barracks, “If you touch me or my stuff…I’ll kill ya.” As for Guillen, if you throw at him or his team, you’re going down!

Last weekend the Yankees swept the ChiSox in a 3-game set at Yankee Stadium and each of the games provided opportunity for Guillen to sound off. When the Sox were limited to just one hit and committed three errors in a 3-0 loss to the Bronx Bombers Guillen offered this summary:

"I'm embarrassed,'' Guillen said. ''And everybody in that room should be embarrassed. If they're not embarrassed, they got the wrong job or they're stealing money from baseball. I feel like I'm stealing the money from [board chairman] Jerry [Reinsdorf]. And that's a shame. When you got more errors than hits, you better look yourself in the mirror and start second-guessing yourself.

''I was looking at the Little League game this morning, and they were playing better than we did. It was more fun ... this is not major-league baseball. Sorry.''

''If we had a B Game against us, we might tie,'' Guillen said. ''Nobody is going to win. I feel that way, and I hope my players and coaches feel the same way.”

After another loss to the Yankees, where Chicago suffered from poor base-running, Guillen said, ''We had an opportunity to score some runs, we're not scoring runs. I never in my life, I don't remember someone getting thrown out at the plate 3-2 [count] with two outs. If you're a manager, you wonder what's going to be next. But when you see that [stuff], you're shaking your head like wow.

''We got picked off at third base once to lose a game, we got picked off at second base then we got thrown out on 3-2 with two out at the plate by 20 feet. Well, I don't give a [darn] who is managing this ballclub, they better check their [butt]. What are we going to do next? What should we do?''

The most gut-wrenching loss was when New York’s Robinson Cano delivered a devastating blow to Guillen’s club with a game-winning 3-run homer with two outs in the 10^th inning. The Sox skipper brought in lefty Randy Williams to pitch the 10^th. Williams was able to get both of the first two hitters, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez, out but back-to-back walks brought up Cano. Guillen lamented, ''What did he do, walked the next two on eight pitches, got behind Cano, game's over,'' Guillen said. ''That's the way we roll right now.''

The White Sox are fading from the Central Division pennant race, trailing the Detroit Tigers. They do have six remaining games going head to head with the Tigers, but Guillen is far from positive in his attitude of making the most of those six opportunities to catch Detroit. “What, they think we are going to sweep Detroit? They are full of (crap),” Guillen said in a Chicago Sun-Times story. “Don’t think Detroit is going to come in and say ‘Here it is.’ They are playing well, better than we do. It’s not going to be easy. If we continue to play like that, I don’t care how many games we play against Detroit, we can play 20 games against them, it’s not going to help.”

These are mere snippets of what goes on regularly for those who follow the Chicago South Siders. How lucky the people of Chicago are to be treated to this after each and every of the 162 games on the schedule.

In recent years it has become very unbecoming for coaches and players to air their dirty laundry in public, to throw someone else under the bus, or to throw gasoline on a small campfire. But, for those of us who enjoy a good rant, who appreciate people that wear emotions on their sleeve, for those of us who need a refreshing change from all the political correctness and “play nice together in the sand box” public people, Ozzie Guillen gives us all of that and more.