So will Ozzie Guillen take over Alvin Dark's title of "The Swamp Fox."

Ozzie G. is the only MLB manager worth talking to from a media perspective and the enjoyment he radiates to a non-team specific baseball fan like me is warm and gigantic. Yes he says stupid things from time to time, but: 1. at least he is saying something beyond "we respect our opponents today and we're just gonna try to be patient and blah, blah, blah...."; 2. He talks to the press like he's talking to a human being instead of some police interrogator trying to convict him of a crime; 3. he's the only manager with a working, observable sense of humor in MLB.

The day of Ozzie's firing (and it inevitably will come, of course) will be a sad one for me as a generic baseball fan.

The press conference Ozzie gives regarding his firing (or quitting) will be up there with Rickey's and Manny's HOF speeches. Unfortunately, Ozzie's press conference will probably have to be On-Demand and then straight to instructional video. I have a 'horrible' mouth, but Ozzie finds ways to get 'sh*t' in sentences that I can only admire.

Also, I may be a bit of a homer, but Francona has a pretty good sense of humor.

Eh. He's a mean-spirited, unpleasant, boorish loudmouth. However funny and honest he is doesn't make up for that in my opinion. I know that's subjective, however.

What's interesting is that I don't think Ozzie LIKES his team. Not in the player sense. But in the "how the team plays the game" sense.

Which if you think about it is a credit to him. He has a team not aligned with his approach yet still generates solid results.

Most managers in any business struggle with that situation.

What's interesting is that I don't think Ozzie LIKES his team. Not in the player sense. But in the "how the team plays the game" sense.

Spot on, Harvey. Every offseason, Guillen talks about how he wants a younger, faster, more offensively-versatile team that can bunt and steal bases and play good defense. And every year he gets the same slow, plodding, HR-centric, average defense team.

...1. at least he is saying something beyond "we respect our opponents today and we're just gonna try to be patient and blah, blah, blah...."; 2. He talks to the press like he's talking to a human being instead of some police interrogator trying to convict him of a crime; 3. he's the only manager with a working, observable sense of humor in MLB.

1. A good way to tell if there is freedom of speech is how rare it is for someone to speak out. We give Ozzie credit for speaking his mind precisely because it is rare in our suppressive system. If everybody felt free to speak their mind, Ozzie would be seen as a bigoted mean dishonest smart man.
2. He has threatened people in the press, yelled at them, and otherwise demeaned them. Recall all the stuff with Jay Mariotti?
3. Raving lunatics are hysterical, particularly intelligent ones.

He's getting his wish for a swimming pool, it seems.

Is threatening Jay Marotti really a negative? Would that be a plus for Ozzie?

Is threatening Jay Marotti really a negative? Would that be a plus for Ozzie?

Oh yeah, a big positive - but not treating the press like humans, as #2 above. Despite all, I enjoy Ozzie - he is in the entertainment business after all.

StHendu: I see what you're getting at, and I can't say I can recall many/all of Ozzie's rants, but most of the humans that surround me, even the ones who say they "love" me talk to me in the most hateful tones sometimes. The emotional I can take in a manager...the robotic is more insufferable, and much more common.

Francona, yeah he's got something of the human in him as well.

I'm trying to see why someone would characterize Guillen as "mean", and all I can come up with is possibly his notion that calling someone a homosexual is somehow a put-down (which I would agree is not a point in his favor). But past that I got nothing.

The Mariotti card does not impress me as a point against him. That was a personal dislike, and unless you're like Gandhi or whatever, you're going to have those.

Every offseason, Guillen talks about how he wants a younger, faster, more offensively-versatile team that can bunt and steal bases and play good defense. And every year he gets the same slow, plodding, HR-centric, average defense team.

One of the reasons I thought Ozzie would be an absolute trainwreck of a manager--I was way off, I'm happy to admit--was that he was forever talking about how he wanted a faster, buntier kind of team. I assumed that Ozzie, like many managers, would try to shoehorn his system on to a team that wasn't really set-up for it. It is to his great credit that he has never done that.

I'm trying to see why someone would characterize Guillen as "mean",

Yes, you mentioned a couple good reasons to categorize him as mean. Those are enough, but there are more:
Constant orders to throw at batters. He has admitted to this and has yelled and punished his pitchers if they refuse. (I recall Andy Van Slyke being upset at him for this, and another pitcher being sent to the minors after missing a batter)
He has many fights similar to that with Mariotti: Ordonez, Mariano Duncan, Garner, Showalter, Frank Thomas, and on and on.
Suspended for verbally berating umpire and spitting on him.
He still reminds me of Billy Martin without the alcohol (and therefore without the physical fights) but maybe I just miss Billy.

He still reminds me of Billy Martin without the alcohol (and therefore without the physical fights) but maybe I just miss Billy.

Billy's defining characteristic was a willingness to pick fights with the front office, I would have said. I'm not aware of any similarities with Ozzie there. Ozzie seems to direct his anger outside of the organization.

However, Martin did adjust his strategic approaches to his team, perhaps more strongly than is widely realized.

Spot on, Harvey. Every offseason, Guillen talks about how he wants a younger, faster, more offensively-versatile team that can bunt and steal bases and play good defense. And every year he gets the same slow, plodding, HR-centric, average defense team.

While Ozzie may not like this style, he's at least smart enough to realize that it won a World Series and it made the playoffs this year. Last year, he had all his fast, slappy hitters, and they sucked. He's goofy in a way (well, lots of ways), but while he likes fast guys who play D and can't hit, he keeps Griffey in the lineup over Anderson, but then benches Swisher in favor of DeWayne Wise. My biggest criticism of Ozzie is that he keeps playing horrendous guys over more capable players because they're "veterans" and they bring "bring some speed". ####, just bench Uribe and Wise, they suck.

Unfortunately, the White Sox don't have any options at third base other than Juan Uribe.

I don't get the fascination with DeWayne Wise, but he's 2-for-5 with a double and a homer in the playoffs. He's not the problem.

Unfortunately, the White Sox don't have any options at third base other than Juan Uribe.

They have a guy who hit 23 HR in a 100 games. Yeah, I know, Fields didn't do anything this season, but he sure got a chance to prove himself in those 32 ABs!

Fields isn't an OBP machine, but Uribe's OBP isn't over .300 either. If you're going to have a bad hitter, at least have the bad hitter that can destroy the ball.

Fields has been 1) banged-up, and 2) unable to hit a fastball down the middle faster than 92 m.p.h. because of the hitch in his swing. There's no trick to pitching him anymore. Uribe is a better option, like it or not.

Swisher is lost at the plate. KW has admitted as much.

As far as this:

Constant orders to throw at batters. He has admitted to this and has yelled and punished his pitchers if they refuse. (I recall Andy Van Slyke being upset at him for this, and another pitcher being sent to the minors after missing a batter)

Constant? Numbers don't back that up.

Sox hitters have been hit 63 times this year; Sox pitchers have only hit 48 batters. That's +15. Previous seasons:

2007: -8
2006: 0
2005: +27

The Sox would go through more than six starters a season if pitchers were constantly failing him. He's just the only manager who talks about it.

He still reminds me of Billy Martin without the alcohol (and therefore without the physical fights) but maybe I just miss Billy.

I miss Billy too, but I'm having a hard time conceiving of Billy Martin without the alcohol. It's like trying to think about the Pope without relgion ;-)

If you're going to have a bad hitter, at least have the bad hitter that can destroy the ball.

He chose the bad hitter that's a freaking Hoover in the field.

Swisher is lost at the plate. KW has admitted as much.

And somehow Greg Walker keeps his job.

The Mariotti card does not impress me as a point against him. That was a personal dislike, and unless you're like Gandhi or whatever, you're going to have those dislike Mariotti.