When we bring you quotes and other material from Ozzie Guillen here on LBS, we usually preface it by saying something along the lines of, “nothing Ozzie says or does surprises us.” For the most part, that is the case. Guillen loves to rant and baseball fans are used to hearing him by now. However, Ozzie made it clear on Monday that even he can still leave people speechless and a little shocked.
As I’m sure you have heard by now, Guillen was released from his White Sox contract upon request and will reportedly manage the Marlins for the next four seasons. The contract with Florida will pay him roughly $4 million per year. One might expect Ozzie to claim the decision was not about money like every other player and manager before him, but as The Big Lead pointed out that was hardly the case.
“With the rings, I can’t do [anything] with that,’’ Guillen said according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “But with money, I can go buy me a new boat, I can go buy me a new car, I can dress my wife the way I want to dress her, I can go to Spain. With the ring, I can go to United Airlines and say, ‘Hello, I won the 2005 championship. Can you fly me to Spain?’ Hell, no.
“Money is everything besides health. Money is next to that. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, love.’ They don’t know what love means. I guarantee you, if you raise a girl where I grew up and you’ve got no money and she loves you, but you put the same girl with a guy who’s got a lot of money, I’ll bet she’ll love the guy with money. That’s the way it is. I love you, but I’m hungry.
“I work in this job for money. I don’t work for nothing. Money. That’s it. The ring? [Bleep] the ring. I don’t even wear my [bleeping] rings. I don’t.’’
You know that boat he mentioned? He went into further detail about that. In fact, you might even think it was the driving force behind Guillen’s decision after listening to him.
“You know what I saw a couple days ago?’’ Guillen continued. “I saw a 62-foot boat. That’s what I want, and that’s what I’m going to get. People have to pay me for that. White Sox? I don’t know. Marlins? I don’t know. But somebody will pay. I want to buy my [bleeping] boat. That’s my inspiration. My inspiration is money. That’s everybody’s inspiration.
“If I leave here, I will say, ‘I leave here because I want to make my [bleeping] money.’ You know why? Because no [bleeping] fans, no [bleeping] Jerry or [bleeping] anybody is going to take care of my grandkids and put me in a 62-foot boat. That’s why there’s free agency.’’
That has to sting for Chicago fans and players — even the ones who claim to enjoy the drama that goes along with being managed by Ozzie. Other than that, I have no commentary to add. This could be the most priceless moment in Guillen’s long and increasingly entertaining career.
