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White Sox Tue Sep 27 2011
Closing Time: Ozzie is Out as White Sox Manager
I don't know how Monday became Ozzie Guillen's last game as White Sox manager.
I can't tell you how Ozzie is feeling about Kenny Williams these days or how Kenny is feeling about Ozzie or how Papa Jerry Reinsdorf is feeling about the two men, these surrogate sons of his. It's always made for a rip-roaring psychodrama, but the backstage stories told publicly have been so many, so varied and often so conflicting as to render impossible any clear sense of the interpersonal dynamics at play.
What I can say is it was time for a change.
Not because Ozzie Guillen is a bad manager; he's one of the top 10 or 12 guys out there, despite his flaws. But eight years was enough. In the struggle to repeat the glories of 2005, Ozzie and Kenny had become a headline that would not go away. It became exhausting for everyone - thanks, Chicago media! - and especially so once this disastrous "all in" season was revealed as a snake-river bluff that came up empty and left the franchise with few good cards for the next round.
Heck, I'm so wiped out I'm starting to sound like Hawk Harrelson. (Snake-river bluff?)
So Ozzie goes south to Miami, proving yet again that sometimes the rumor mill is running on more than pure speculation, and we look to a very interesting off-season, not only for the GM-less Cubs, but now for the head-less White Sox.
Like their North Side brethren, the Sox are locked into a bunch of bad contracts and have not nearly as many personnel options as you'd like after a losing season. When Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle, your oldest everyday player and your oldest starting pitcher, are your most productive everyday player and starting pitcher (and among precious few who were even above-average this year), you've got work to do.
At least they have a two-day head start.
