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Thank Heaven for Little Guillens

Thank the Baseball Gods for the Guillen family; in a cold quiet winter they bring us sparks and adventure. Yesterday White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen’s son Oney absolutely lit into former White Sox and current Red Sox reliever Bobby Jenks on Twitter. Highlights are many, but include:

hahah memo to bobby jenks get a clue u drink to much and u have had marital problems hugeee ones and the sox stood behind u

they did not air out ur dirty laundry, u came to srping not drinking and then u sucked and started srinking again be a man

be a man and tell the manager or the coaching staff how u feel or the organization when u were with the sox not when u leave

u cried in the managers office bc u have problems now u go and talk bad about the sox after they protected u for 7 years ungrateful

if it wasnt for u and mainly u freddy garcia would have like 17 wins and the sox would have beat the twins …

…oh and yes i remember clearly u blowing a hugee game in 09 and u laughing ur bearded ass off while everyone busting there tail…

…one little story remember when u couldnt handle ur drinking and u hit a poor arizona clubby in the face i do. and later u covered it wit

Im sorry thats ur answer to everything. How can u disrespect ur ex team like that

Uh, yikes. The comments from Jenks that brought this on were obnoxious, but fairly tame in comparison. He told reporters that he wanted “to play for a manager who trusts his relievers, regardless of what’s going on,” and said “Why would I come back to that negativity? I’m looking forward to playing for a manager who knows how to run a bullpen.” He also felt that the White Sox didn’t handle their decision not to re-sign him particularly well, which is debatable, but a common enough sentiment when teams and players part ways.

Jim Margalus of South Side Sox writes,

I wouldn’t be surprised if most, if not all, of what Oney Guillen tweeted about Jenks was true. There were a couple of weird tongue-holding episodes at the end of the season; Jenks creating an uneasy scene by spitting on the clubhouse floor, Kenny Williams saying “there are certain things I’m not going to talk about right now.” To this point, Williams has resisted kicking Jenks out the door, but Oney seems to have filled in at least some of the blanks. None of it was necessary.

OK, nothing Guillen’s middle son does is necessary when it comes to White Sox Business, but this was bringing a grenade to a pillow fight. Jenks only criticized Ozzie the Manager, and that brings only Bobby the Pitcher into play. There’s lots of room for insult there. His attitude, his inconsistent performance, which may have been attributable to his inconsistent conditioning … pick one and hammer away if you please. That’s an eye for an eye, and all in a day’s work for these highly compensated professionals.

That would accomplish far more than taking private information and making it public.

This isn’t the first time Jenks’ personal issues went public; in Jerry Crasnick’s “License to Deal: A Season on the Run With a Maverick Baseball Agent”, Crasnick and Jenks’ former representative Matt Sosnick describe the pitcher as “an agent’s nightmare – the type of player who constantly tests management’s patience and rarely takes responsibility for his actions,” whose “drinking and capacity for self-destruction… soiled just about everything he touched,” a “reclamation project” who “couldn’t be reclaimed.” Ouch again.

I’m sure the Red Sox knew what they were getting into and if Jenks pitches well, as he has in the past, no one on the team or in the stands will care much about the guy’s flaws, whatever they might be. If he doesn’t, though, Boston is not a place where it takes very long for things to get ugly.

Anyway, Oney Guillen’s rant was clearly unprofessional and inappropriate, but in these days of corporate-speak, careful PR men, and dull canned quotes, I’ve gotta say I’m glad somebody is still able to go off the reservation like that.

Photo via Chicago Now

15 comments

1 Chyll Will   ~  Dec 29, 2010 1:40 pm

Huh, I thought Growing Up Gotti got cancelled some time ago. And don't you have to have a job in order to be professional? Oney's got nothing to lose except a place in Ozzie's estate at this point.

On that note, Ozzie had something to say the last time this happened...

2 rbj   ~  Dec 29, 2010 2:35 pm

Hi Emma, just saw your offer on those Bill James Abstracts, how much?

rjwoof at yahoo.com

Thanks.

3 Emma Span   ~  Dec 29, 2010 2:55 pm

[2] Ah, that was Diane, not me!

4 thelarmis   ~  Dec 29, 2010 2:57 pm

[2] hey man, it was Diane who was offering you the bill james abstracts. it was emma's column. i just doubled checked that. look out for dianagram here...

[1] nicely played on the bob james/earl klugh! ol' earl lives here in the ATL... oh, and i went to high-school with Gene Gotti's daughters...

5 thelarmis   ~  Dec 29, 2010 2:58 pm

[3] damn you! i wrote my post before 2:55, but hesitated! : p

anyway, i've been really psyched to get a bunch of Emma posts here at the Banter! i always *love* your columns. : )

6 rbj   ~  Dec 29, 2010 3:00 pm

[3], [4]D'oh! Too much Christmas cheer. Yeah, that's it.

Interest still stands, Diane.

7 Emma Span   ~  Dec 29, 2010 3:02 pm

[6] Oh, so WE ALL LOOK THE SAME TO YOU, eh?!

(kidding, kidding).

[5] Thanks!

8 thelarmis   ~  Dec 29, 2010 3:04 pm

[6] i'm sure you can work out a good deal w/ Diane. not sure if you saw my post on that thread, but i have 6 of those 80's Abstracts. i should prolly sell 'em, or something, 'coz they're just sitting on a shelf in my den, along with a ton of other cool baseball books, that i'll prolly never read. but i kinda like having 'em, ya know?! plus, my brother is coming down from NY tonight and i know he's gonna wanna sit on the recliner and thumb thru a bunch of 'em...

9 Chyll Will   ~  Dec 29, 2010 3:11 pm

[4] What does Earl Klugh have to do with Gene Gotti's daughters? >;)

10 Sliced Bread   ~  Dec 29, 2010 3:18 pm

some technical assistance required here:

on Twitter, is there a device, or link, or is there something you externally plug into your frontal lobe that allows you to reclaim the brain cells lost reading nonsense like this?

also, where does one acquire one of those *white-hot-bad-grammar-pokers (or whatever they're actually called) that Guillen's son used to brand Jenx? And are they meant to be used only on unruly relief pitchers?

*it would be a gift - for a friend.

11 Emma Span   ~  Dec 29, 2010 3:29 pm

[10] lol whatr u talken about smh

12 rbj   ~  Dec 29, 2010 3:43 pm

[11] O deer, Bantr iz turnin 2 lolspeek.

13 Diane Firstman   ~  Dec 29, 2010 4:17 pm

[11,12]

Comments of the day

[6]

Have Alex give you my e-mail addy .... make an offer .... I'm not looking to break any banks :-)

14 Diane Firstman   ~  Dec 29, 2010 4:32 pm

Hey jazz friends ... Billy Taylor passed away .... :-(
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/arts/music/30taylor.html?_r=1&hp

15 thelarmis   ~  Dec 29, 2010 6:12 pm

[14] oh no. that's Dr. Taylor to you! what a great jazz educator and ambassador. he led a full and wonderful life. still, this is sad.

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"This ain't football. We do this every day."
--Earl Weaver