Perhaps it’s appropriate that such a fiery and tumultuous personality as Ozzie Guillén will have his No. 13 jersey retired by the White Sox on the heels of Chicago’s first four-game losing streak of the season.
You almost have to wonder whether Ozzie will ask to speak to the team before he hits the field for his honor, because he’s not being immortalized by the White Sox today for his hitting or even his stellar defense, but his leadership and inspiration.
Because tonight is a Fox national broadcast,
CHSN is throwing its full weight into honoring its pre- and postgame analyst. Kicking off at 3:30 p.m. CT is Honoring Ozzie, followed by Ozzie the Legend at 4:30 p.m and the retirement ceremony at 5:30 p.m.
Ashley Sanders will be writing up tonight’s game, but also providing coverage of Ozzie’s big day.
As someone who followed Ozzie as a player and covered him as a beat writer, allow me to share some memories. (All of you are encouraged to do the same, in the comments below.)
When Ozzie was acquired by the White Sox prior to the 1985 season, those of you who were around recall it was quite the controversial trade: Giving up a pitcher one year removed from the Cy Young, and a workhorse, for a scrawny, unknown shortstop who’d yet to sniff the big leagues. But my enduring memory, as a young player just entering his high school career, was my father highlighting a Tribune feature about Ozzie before he ever set foot on the field for the White Sox:
My dad became a White Sox fan because he chose Chico Carrasquel as his first baseball hero. (Carrasquel of course would become the first of a “Venezuelan connection” of shortstops on the South Side.) So perhaps seeing this young shortstop from the same country as Chico and Luis Aparicio stirred something in him, because he highlighted all of Ozzie’s quotes about the passion he has for the game. The effort my dad made, and Ozzie’s own words, did inspire me, and I became a better player as a result.
But I got to know Ozzie more as a person by covering him as part of the relentless march of the baseball season, where you are together with the players and even more so the manager over upwards of eight months of the year. For a man who was “the show” at all times, the leader of the White Sox despite no longer stepping between the lines, he had depth and caring. His surprising embrace and encouragement at the open of the Winter Meetings after the 2010 season I will never forget. His consideration of the work I was charged with doing on the beat (juggling quite a bit more than mere pregame notebooks and postgame recaps) was obvious. And his departure at the end of 2011, painful and still today a struggle to understand, was capped by an honest embrace and an small exchange of gifts.
I have been lucky to engage with hundreds of athletes and coaches across baseball, basketball and hockey, among them a great many of my heroes. It’s fair to say that none of them impacted me professionally and connected with me personally as much as Ozzie.
It is wonderful that Ozzie, with a nomadic personality but a heart that is all White Sox, receives this honor today.
As for the main feature tonight, Hagen Smith and Tanner McDougal will be in uniform on the South Side after getting the call from Charlotte late after Friday night’s game, with Noah Schultz and David Sandlin the corresponding demotions.
Charged with snapping the season-long four-game losing streak will be Anthony Kay, and he’s got a mother of a matchup facing Cleveland’s Gavin Williams:
Here’s the lineup that the White Sox will roll out against Williams:
It’s a Fox national game tonight, so coverage there begins with a 6 p.m. CT pregame, followed by a first pitch at 6:15. ESPN 1000 AM has the radio broadcast, as usual.
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