Scary thought?
How about Ozzie Guillen unleashed for the national media at Monday’s All-Star festivities?
“For me it was great,” the White Sox manager said. “I think a lot of people were worried–`Uh-oh, Ozzie with media from all over the world.’ Everybody wants to have a piece of you and see what’s going on. To me, it’s better for me and for people to know who I am.”
And so Guillen went through a full day of interviews in English and Spanish with pens and microphones and cameras recording every word.
And–as far as is known–he made it through the day without insulting anyone or embarrassing the organization or Major League Baseball, which he represents as American League manager.
“Media-wise, they treated me the way everybody should be treated,” Guillen said. “They asked me the questions everybody knows they are going to ask me. For me, it’s an opportunity to let them know who I am, what I do, what I think, what I say. I don’t have to hide from the situation. I can say what I have to say and do what I have to do.”
Asked if he had yet thrown any of his AL All-Stars–who will meet the NL Tuesday night–“under the bus,” as he likes to say, Guillen replied:
“Not yet. After the game I will,” he added with a laugh. “It will be somebody’s fault [if the AL loses].”
In fact, Guillen went out of his way to avoid controversy when he scratched his own pitcher, Jose Contreras, and added Minnesota’s Francisco Liriano.
Contreras pitched Sunday and “didn’t give me the right answer” when Guillen asked if he could be ready if needed Tuesday. Several others also pitched Sunday, most notably Johan Santana and Roy Halladay.
“With my players, I can handle the situation,” Guillen said. “The rest of the league is a dangerous situation. If all of a sudden I hurt one of those kids or I overuse him or they don’t like the way I handle it, then we have problems.
“That’s why I had a meeting face to face to see how they can help me. I told them, `Don’t lie to me. If you feel something or can’t pitch or don’t want to pitch . . . ‘ And everybody seems fine. Except this kid [Boston reliever Jonathan Papelbon]. I told him the only way I will pitch you is if we go 19 innings and we don’t have anybody else. It’s a tough situation.
“If Jose could have pitched [Tuesday], he would pitch. But I’d rather, as the manager, not use him. In the meanwhile, maybe people will say, `He’s not going to pitch Contreras but he’s going to pitch Santana and Halladay.’ That’s a real dangerous spot for me.
“I talked to the players. I made it real clear if you’re not available, please let me know. If we get to the point I don’t have to use somebody to lose the game, I’d rather lose the game than have people talking about me hurting somebody.”
Contreras will be ready to start the Sox’s second half Friday at Yankee Stadium.
Guillen arrived in Pittsburgh after 11 p.m. Sunday and had dinner with his family. By 10:30 a.m. Monday he was in a hotel ballroom facing reporters. He conducted several radio interviews, then spoke at a luncheon sponsored by former player Cal Ripken Jr.
Accompanied all day by two White Sox off-duty clubhouse guards, Guillen arrived at PNC Park at 1:30 p.m. to meet with coaches Joey Cora and Don Cooper and then personally greet each player as he entered the clubhouse for a late afternoon workout.
“It feels like all those guys in the room have played for me before,” Guillen said. “I played with everyone in there, I coached those guys, I saw [them as] kids growing up. I feel like another guy in the group.”
Among the AL players was former White Sox outfielder Magglio Ordonez, whom Guillen added to the team even though the two exchanged harsh words through the media last season.
“Magglio and I hugged each other, we love each other,” Guillen said. “I don’t have anything against Mags. I said what I had to say, he said what he had to say and it’s over with. I don’t regret what I said. He’s here and I have to treat him the way he should be treated.”
In the morning’s televised media session, Guillen looked spiffy in a light-colored suit and matching tie, translating himself when questions were asked in Spanish. He said he felt “a responsibility because I try to put my country [Venezuela] on the biggest stage I can.”
He also lightened up the event when he introduced Kenny Rogers of Detroit as his starting pitcher. Rogers’ Tigers lead the White Sox by two games in the AL Central and are the only team in baseball with a better record. Rogers, Guillen said, “will pitch 10 innings.”
Guillen tried to keep peace all the way around during his first of two days in a worldwide spotlight. That included sessions when he was asked about his homosexual slur regarding columnist Jay Mariotti.
“Yeah, of course,” he said when asked if he had been asked about it. “I can handle it.
“It was good for me to be able to explain myself and say what I have to say without people saying, `Chicago people say’… I think it worked out pretty good.”
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dvandyck@tribune.com
