5 Things We Learned From “The Book of Ozzie Guillén” This Week
By Tab Bamford
This week we released the second five episodes of “The Book of Ozzie Guillén,” in which the legend recalls being traded to the White Sox, winning Rookie of the Year, getting his chance as a coach and ultimately becoming the first Latin American-born manager to win the World Series. What did we learn from Ozzie this week?
1. “He looks like a jockey.”
“I remember I showed up at the ballpark and people looked at me like ‘What?’ Greg Walker said ‘Why did we trade LaMarr Hoyt for that?’…Jerry Krause he told people, he said ‘We traded for this guy. I don’t know if he’s a little s*** but he can play. He knows the game.'”
2. “I was the baby on the team.”
“Everybody was a grown man and I was like three years younger than them. To me it was very unique the way Tom Seaver treated me. He put me under his wing for a little while, taught me the right things, didn’t let me do stupid things.”
3. “The bus goes one time. get on the bus.”
“My wife said ‘You’re lucky.’ She said ‘You have my permission to to coach because how many coaches in the big leagues are from Latin America? How many coaches spend 30 years in the minor leagues before coaching in the big leagues? And you are the lucky man, and maybe the only one, going from big league player to big league coach.’”
4. “I almost missed my flight.”
“All of a sudden Jerry [Reinsdorf] called and said ‘Hey, we need you back in Chicago tomorrow.’ I get in, we talked about it, and [they said], ‘You are the new manager of the White Sox.‘”
5. “To me, that was more important than anything else.”
“The last out of the World Series, when I turn and see my three kids next to me, that’s a gift from God. You don’t see that many managers with their kids at that particular moment in the dugout… First thing I did was put my head down and look at my kids and kissed them.”