Posted by: Michael Cahill
Apr. 22, 2009
Well it didn’t take long for Ozzie Guillen to find his first sparring partner of the baseball season. Nick Swisher is the latest victim of the wrath of Ozzie.
It makes sense though: pitching has been solid. The bats are consistently scoring runs. The defense has been solid, and even center field seems to be OK for now. Things were just too quiet on the southside and Ozzie had to do somethng about that.
It's never unlike the Wizard of Ozz to say something after being attacked. Magglio Ordonez and Buck Showalter can both attest to that. But I’ve got to think that in this situation Ozzie was really reaching.
When Swisher was asked recently to give his thoughts on new skipper Joe Girardi, Swisher replied "Never want to play for anybody else. There’s just something about him, man. He brings everybody together. Best manager I ever played for."
I would love for someone to explain to me how this is insulting. This is what players do. Hell, this is what the rest of the world does. Any normal human being who gets a new boss and is asked to make a piblic comment about that boss is going to say something like: "Never want to work for anybody else. There’s just something about him, man. He brings everybody together. Best manager I ever worked for." Would it be true? Maybe. Would it be a move to protect yourself from being fired? Absolutely. Joe Girardi decides playing time for Swisher, what the hell else is he gonna say?
I’m not saying there isn’t truth to his words. Swisher didn’t have the best run on the southside last year and Ozzie certainly isn’t a guy to coddle his players. In fact, it’s not beneath him to throw them under the bus from time to time either, but my guess is that Swisher loves the change of scenary and views Girardi’s differences from Guillen as a strength at this point, rather than a weakness. It’s the honeymoon period of your new job. That’s all.
So the question is is why is Ozzie saying anything at all? Can he be so thin skinned that he has to get into a verbal sparring match with a guy who simply praised his new boss? I’m often a defender of Ozzie. I appreciate his honesty and his brashness, but I also believe in firing back only when there is a legitamate shot fired at you first. All this does is make Ozzie look even more thin-skinned than we already knew he was.
The problem is Ozzie needs to always be talking. He is always looking to give his opinion. I often find his opinion to be entertaining, but not when it is at the expense of a guy he shouldn’t even waste his time on. It’s not as if the Sox are gonna lose potential free agents due to Swishers ringing endorsement of a Girardi-run Yankee’s team.
White Sox payroll will scare people off all by themselves.
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