This article belongs to Jae Journal column.


Have I mentioned this before? Ozzie Guillen is the man! Brandon McCarthy, the "future of the Sox" made comments about how he didn't feel the Sox Clubhouse welcomed him and Brian Anderson was his only friend. He felt the Sox management was too hard on him, and focused more on the negative, rather than just let him go do his thing. Well Ozzie, being the guy he is, wouldn't take that shit, as he let it loose on the Mike North Morning Show.


 


"I don't want to talk about Mac because he made a couple of comments — I really hate him, I don't like the comments he made about our clubhouse, about our players, about [us] negative people here. There's one thing about Ozzie Guillen: Ozzie Guillen is never negative. Obviously he wasn't in the position he liked to be, Guillen said on the show. Well, we didn't want him in the bullpen, but that was the only spot we had. If Brandon McCarthy thought he was better than the five guys I had, he's wrong. The comment he made about the clubhouse that only two guys were single, everybody was married, nobody treated him the way he should . . .  well, everyone in our clubhouse gets along. I think Brandon should look himself in the mirror. You played with us 162 games and all of a sudden you leave and say you don't have a friend in the clubhouse? Only Brian Anderson? Well, he picked the wrong guy to be friends with. People forgot that Brandon McCarthy got caught a couple of times out at night. I called him into my office and said, 'You been hanging around the city a lot, huh?' I said, 'I don't have a spy on you, but I know a lot of people in the bars in Chicago. I've been here for 20 years, and they will tell me everything. He forgot he lost a couple of games for us. He lost at least five of the 72. We might be in the playoffs without him." (Sun Times March 2, 2007)


 


Now many people, including Sox fans, say that this is bad for the Sox. That Ozzie's bullshit takes away the focus from the team. I say bullshit. As a Sox fan I say three things.


 


First off, Ozzie felt attacked. He felt as if McCarthy was attacking the clubhouse and he defended the clubhouse. If I am playing for the Sox, I'll know Ozzie will have my back (at least when I am on his side). I am not going to shoot my mouth off when I leave. He didn't say anything about Rowand. He fired back on Maggs for talking shit, he fired back on Marriotti for talking shit. So what is Ozzie supposed to do, be quiet? I think many people have to understand Ozzie stands by his team 110%, which brings me to point two . . .


 


Ozzie is honest. He speaks from the heart. No one really does that anymore. Everyone wants to be politically correct and shit, and may I once again say, that is ruining the fabric of the nation. It is free speech that is slowly disintegrating because everyone is walking on eggshells around everyone. Not Ozzie, and I respect him for that. You want honesty, you call Ozzie Guillen.


 


And finally, McCarthy sucked out loud last year. For Kenny Williams to have so much faith in him makes me sick to this day, and then to let him loose is ridiculous. What the fuck! He did blow a shit load of games, so what did Ozzie say that was so bad? He protected him when he was on the team, but when McCarthy goes to Texas and starts talking about all the negatives, it makes me think gee Brandon, maybe they were telling you what to work on so much because you sucked!!! Thank you!!!


 


Point being, I give Ozzie credit for standing up and saying something. Maybe the "I hate him" comment was a little too strong, but when you piss off the Ozzman Cometh, chances are you will get burned.


 


JAE