It’s time to settle into 2013, and the baseball season that awaits.
Interestingly enough, as a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan I spent a summer interning primarily for the Chicago White Sox and WGN-TV back in 2008. It was none other than Ozzie Guillen that supplied me with one of my most memorable moments.
We had just finished pre-game interviews, and he was ranting about one of the members of the media. There I am standing there taking it all in, just trying to be a fly on the inside of the dugout.
That’s when he turned to me.
"Who are you?" Guillen asked.
Naturally, I froze and didn't expect him to say a thing to me. I replied with, "Hi, I'm Ben. I intern for WGN.”
Then the conversation took off.
GUILLEN: Why the F%#& you wearing a suit? It's 100 F$@#%^* degrees out here?
ME: Uh, just wanted to look nice.
GUILLEN: Take off your $$%R$%@ jacket! You'll feel better, I promise! If you get fired from your internship, you can get a new F@$%*% internship.
I took off the suit coat.
GUILLEN: Feel better?
ME: Yeah, thanks Ozzie.
GUILLEN: Told you! Good to meet you kid.
It’s the pure randomness of that exchange that made me realize…that’s exactly how Ozzie Guillen has always lived his life. The man doesn’t care what other people think. He’s had his successes and his failures.
He told me if I got in trouble and I lost my internship (which I knew I wouldn’t), then I could find a new one.
In the bigger picture, he’s saying that no matter what, pick up and go on to the next thing. Guillen did that once he left Chicago, and he’s done that since being fired by the Miami Marlins.
Now, five years removed from the conversation, Guillen was rumored as the potential third base coach for the Baltimore Orioles in February. That didn’t work out, and he might head overseas to manage in Asia, or settle into more broadcasting roles.
At least he’s taking his own advice.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
