Thursday, June 28, 2007

Read Between The Lines: Ozzie Under The Guillen-tine

We may be rid of the scourge that is Ozzie Guillen, after all.

Guillen, the manager of the Chicago White Sox, seems to have his neck placed squarely under the executioner's razor-sharp blade, the basket handy to catch his lopped off head. And wearing the black mask is GM Kenny Williams.


Uneasy should lie Guillen's head under the Chisox crown

"I'm tired of watching this," Williams uttered over the weekend as the Sox dropped to an unsightly 13 games under .500. The AL Central figured to be a four-horse race this summer. Hardly anyone suspected the Sox would pull up lame two weeks before the All-Star break.

"Changes will be made," Williams continued, and it would be a surprise if those changes don't include the manager. Guillen might have been cute and cuddly to White Sox brass when the team was winning, despite his propensity to stick his cleats into his foul mouth. But now that the Chisox are ten games under .500, 12 games behind the Tigers and looking moribund -- despite a three-game sweep of equally inept Tampa Bay -- it would seem that Guillen's time is drawing to a close.

Not that baseball would miss him. Ozzie Guillen's pugnaciousness made him a terrific ballplayer and probably a delight to manage. But his antics and words -- too many to consolidate here -- don't wear well as a field boss. He's like Billy Martin that way, but Martin was a winner everywhere he managed, and only twice finished below .500 in 16 seasons as a manager.

So far, no changes have been made, that Williams has promised. There would seem to be enough talent to produce much better than a 32-42 record.

Dust off the hot seat, open up the books in Vegas, and start the countdown. Tell the f0lks at ESPN to make the "Who Will Replace Ozzie?" graphics, ready to be flashed on the screen at a moment's notice. Create the Internet polls, with a choice of successors. Ozzie Guillen may not be the manager of the Chicago White Sox when the teams reconvene after the All-Star break. If Kenny Williams keeps his word and makes changes to shake up his ballclub, and replacing Guillen isn't among those changes, then much of his talk will be just that.

"I'm tired of watching this," Williams said.

Then may as well get rid of the person who hasn't been able to do anything to stop it.

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