There are those who love Ozzie Guillen and those who loathe him. One thing we all should be able to agree on is his effectiveness as a manager. Ozzie may say some ridiculous things at times, but overall his teams want to win for him. White Sox G.M. Kenny Williams must have known that all the way back when Guillen was a bench coach for the Marlins. Otherwise, he may not have given the Chicago managing job to Ozzie after he showed up to his interview drunk.
“To be honest with you, the day I was doing the interview with Kenny (Williams) I was drunk, hungover,” Guillen said during an interview with ESPN Chicago’s Waddle and Silvy. “We just won the World Series. I came to Chicago from Miami. I was at a party all night long at Ivan Rodriguez’s house. I come out, wake up when we land at O’Hare. I want to drink a beer when we talk about baseball. I’m a little hungover and we talk about baseball.
“I don’t know what I say. I remember what I said, I said, ‘Listen, you want to hire me because I’m a minority. Don’t do it. I’m happy where I am.’ … It’s just like if you have a nice car and you want to buy another one. You don’t need it; you just want it.”
Williams hired the nut anyway, and it paid off almost immediately as the White Sox won a World Series the second season Ozzie was in charge. He now faces the tall task of bringing the Marlins back to the level they were at when he left, but if anyone is up for the challenge it’s Guillen. He’ll have to deal with a potentially disgruntled Hanley Ramirez and try to get something out of Carlos Zambrano, but if Ozzie can score a job while he’s drunk he must be worthy of managing in South Beach.
