Jun 22 2006
Ozzie Guillen’s Guide to Career-icide
Ozzie Guillen, the out-spoken, Venezuelan-born manager of the Chicago White Sox is finding himself in some hot water.
On Thursday of this week, the White Sox will be coming to Houston to play the Astros in an inter-league rematch of last year’s World Series. As you can imagine, Ozzie was asked questions about the series and that’s when the latest trouble started.
According to MLB.com:
The story, written by Joe Cowley, quoted Guillen as having said the following about Garner: “He wouldn’t shake my hand when we gave the lineups [in the World Series]. I would put my hand out there, but maybe he had a lot of distractions, I don’t know.”
In the Houston Chronicle, Phil Garner had this to say:
“I don’t know if it’s paranoia or what,” Garner said. “I treat people with a great deal of respect. It doesn’t matter what country or origin they’re from. I take exception to being put into that category. That’s why I called him. It sounds to me like he has some issues. Maybe he can get some help about that.”
Guillen is apparently having some trouble with Chicago Writer Joe Cowley and had this charming Guillen quote that appeared via Greg Couch in the Sun Times:
And these are the words that came from the face of the White Sox before Tuesday’s game, referring to a Chicago writer he was angry with: “What a piece of [deleted] he is, [deleted] fag.”
OK. Guillen either realized he went too far or was pressured to apologize, so here comes an apology “Ozzie-Style†(From ESPN):
Guillen said that in his native Venezuela, that word is not a reference to a person’s sexuality, but to his courage. He said he was saying that Mariotti is “not man enough to meet me and talk about [things before writing].”
Guillen also told Couch that he has gay friends, attends WNBA games, went to a Madonna concert and plans to go to the Gay Games in Chicago.
It’s OK because I go to WNBA games? Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie…
The problem is, he has been this way his entire career. For more on Ozzie, see Sun Times writer/blogger Roman Modrowski’s blog.
