Ozzie Guillen’s greatest memory as a member of the White Sox was his first game in 1993 after returning from his serious knee injury the previous April.
“When I came back to play, the fans gave me a standing ovation,” Guillen said. “I never expected that.”
Guillen will have a new favorite memory Tuesday when he is introduced as the White Sox’s manager before the home opener against Kansas City.
He has been at the helm since November, guiding the team through spring training and the opening week of the season in Kansas City and New York. But Tuesday may be when it all hits home for Guillen.
“There might be some tears in my eyes,” he said.
Guillen’s family and friends from Venezuela will be in attendance, along with former Sox shortstops and fellow Venezuelans Luis Aparicio and Chico Carrasquel.
And there will be the Sox fans, who have had a love affair with Guillen since he became the shortstop on the South Side and won the American League Rookie of the Year Award in 1985.
“For me to come back here and be manager of the White Sox, I think, is something special not only for me but for my family and friends,” he said. “It’s going to be something I’m never going to forget.”
Guillen hasn’t been in U.S. Cellular Field since finishing his playing career with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2000.
“It’s going to be great,” Sox designated hitter Frank Thomas said. “Ozzie always wanted to be in this organization. He never wanted to leave.”
Guillen said he always had the idea of returning to Chicago as manager of the White Sox in the back of his mind, but that’s where it stayed while he finished his playing career and then became a coach in Montreal and Florida.
“My wish came true,” he said.
He brings a Sox team home that opened the season with a 3-3 trip to Kansas City and New York and believed the record should have been better.
“We had a chance to win five of six,” Guillen said.
The Sox will begin a stretch Tuesday in which they play 15 of the next 18 games at home. The Sox were 51-30 at home last season, a club record for wins since moving from old Comiskey Park and the third-best home record in the American League last season behind Oakland and Boston.
Esteban Loaiza will make his second straight home-opening start, although he enters this one a little better known than last season.
Loaiza, a non-roster invitee who made the team in spring training a year ago, won his first start and 20 more. Now he’s a Cy Young Award runner-up trying to duplicate last season.
“It’ll be a big game for Ozzie and myself,” Loaiza said. “The fans in Chicago have given me a lot of respect, and I just want to keep continuing what I did last year.”
Loaiza won his first start Wednesday at Kansas City to give the Sox a split of the first two games and take a little sting off the 9-7 Opening Day loss.
After Wednesday, the Sox won’t see the Royals again until August, when the Sox hope they’ll be in the thick of the race for the Central Division title.
“We’re excited,” Thomas said. “Hopefully the fans are behind us because it’s shaping up for an exciting summer.”
And it all starts for real Tuesday for Guillen.
“To me, [the home opener] is the best one,” Guillen said. “It’s going to be one of the best days I’m ever going to have in my career.”
