5 Things We Learned From “The Book of Ozzie Guillén” This Week

This week we released the first five episodes of “The Book of Ozzie Guillén.” Here are five moments we love from the beginning of our 13-part series.

1. “I don’t love Fidel.”

“I’ve seen a United States President take a picture with Fidel [Castro] before. And my problem was when I saw the Major League Baseball chief, Mr. Bud Selig, sitting next to Fidel at a game in Cuba. Nobody said anything about that.”

2. “I came here to manage a baseball team. I didn’t come here to tell people don’t leave our country.”

“Rubén Blades told me ‘You know what, buddy? You’re not the best player in the country, you’re not the best shortstop, the best hitter, the best anything. But for some reason, you have the power that every time you talk in your country people want to listen.'”

3. “Struggle or not, you have to survive.”

“We lived with seven guys in one room. The days I played, I slept in the bed. When my friend was going to pitch, Benito Malave, the night before he would sleep on the bed and I would sleep on the couch or the floor.”

4. “I played good but the manager hated me.”

“And I hated the manager. I wasn’t an easy kid to handle because I played with the big boys before I went to the rookie league… I thought I knew more baseball than anybody.”

5. “Now we have a responsibility.”

“When Ozzie Jr. was born… now we have to fight to be the best we can be. After that I pushed harder. I cared a little bit more about the game, worried about what I was going to be.”