Keep Ozzie

Lately there has been talk of the Chicago White Sox ditching their manager Ozzie Guillen. Just the fact that I need to comment on this seems preposterous to me. Ozzie Guillen was not the reason the White Sox underachieved this season, his players were. Ozzie began the season without a leadoff hitter, a solid fifth starter or centerfielder and a host of other questions. All of these questions were a recipe for failure, its a wonder the Sox didn't finish worse than just two games below .500. Another reason the Sox struggled could have been the fact that Guillen had two rookies in his infield, which already had two players playing entirely different positions from their previous season, which no doubt had something to do with 113 errors.

I will admit that Ozzie Guillen has a tendancy to go on barely understandable rants and call out his players if he sees something he doesn't like. But isn't that a good thing? Ozzie's rants seem to take the focus off his players and put it squarely on his shoulders. As for when he calls out players, don't you think that it should make them wake up. These guys are professional athletes, not little leaguers that need coddling. I would think that Ozzie's honesty is something his players would appreciate...and fear, again which I believe is a good thing, so his athletes aren't taking their roles for granted.

I will also admit that baseball, and sports in general (Bobby Bowden comes to mind) is a what have you done for me lately type of society. With that in mind Ozzie hasn't won the World Series since 2005, but neither has 27 other skippers in the Majors.

Ozzie did everything he could shy of breaking out his old glove and bat for the White Sox in 2008. He simply did not have the right peices of the puzzle. A puzzle that Ozzie seems to know very well. One move of his that no one will question now was putting Dewayne Wise in as a defensive replacement for Mark Buehrle's perfect game. Plain and simple: Ozzie knows baseball and he wants to win. Sometimes I feel like he wants to win more than any of his players. Ozzie cares about his guys and expects them to come to play and play the right way.

Hopefully Ozzie, who has just announced he will be in the broadcast booth for Fox this postseason, is not preparing for a new career any time soon. The White Sox will bring back, for the most part, the same core of players as last year, but with another year's experience under their belts. He will also begin the season with a very complete and solid rotation, possibly a leadoff hitter, and no rookies in the infield. I am even willing to say that nobody will be questioning Ozzie's job safety after next season.