Like the spitball-shooting, booger-nosed jerk in junior high, Ozzie Guillen can dish out the abuse but can’t take it. - Jay Mariotti
It must really suck to be Joe Cowley this morning.
Seriously, it has to be an extreme downer to have one’s own Michelangelo masterpiece smeared with pig feces by a wannabe artist.
Yeah, that cannot be good at all.
Poor Joe. Unlike his colleague, this “house reporter” (as Jay would describe the job) sat down and interviewed Ozzie Guillen. And to nobody’s surprise, the White Sox manager provided some juicy sound bytes that also included contemplating resigning from his position at the end of this season. Ozzie admitted that the pressures of the job could be daunting at times. He concluded his thoughts with a message of preserverence and a desire to continue managing until “he was dead”.
Rather understandable. And refreshingly honest. Too often, those employed in coaching/managing capacities in professional sports attempt around the clock work days and sacrifice any morsel of a private family life in order to will their teams to more wins. Such habits have become a growing concern in some circles of sports, in particular the NFL.
Coaching and managing in professional sports lives by an impossible creed. You are hired one day to only be fired the next. What a gig.
Joe Cowley captured this moment of humility not often shared by the skipper. All in all, it was nice work and a commendable effort of legitimate journalism.
Apparently Jay Mariotti either didn’t pay the cable bill or the TiVo finally croaked. Therefore, discussing anything relating to either the Cubs or White Sox games last night was out of the question.
So Jay turned to the Internet instead. Curiosity must have killed the gerbil as the back page pundit inevitably caroused over to Cowley’s web page. And lo and behold, the inspiration of the latest hate rant against Guillen was launched.
How ironic of Jay Mariotti to label Ozzie Guillen a “coward” by stealing the quotations obtained by his colleague in order to fuel this long standing feud when the pissant himself refuses to enter the Guillen’s clubhouse.
Evidently, Jay could care less about Cowley or any other reporter that does cover the White Sox on a daily basis. The gutless scribe has the luxury of hiding in his bunker while typing this hateful dreck at the expense of Cowley and others who deal with Guillen and the players. Both parties are now painfully aware and weary that Jay will rip off and distort any on the record quotes. That cannot benefit already strained relations between the clubhouse and the media.
Since when did sports journalism resort to bastardizing another’s work in order to wage a vendetta that is neither profession or appropriate for print? And this is kosher with the sports editor? What the hell is exactly going on at the Sun-Times Sports Department?
Mariotti has expended an extraordinary amount of venom towards Guillen’s alleged unprofessional conduct as a baseball manager. Apparently such holier than thou expectations are not applicable to vengeful dwarfs:
“What the man-child wants, apparently, is a one-sided dialogue with the world.”
“Needless to say, if civilization began and ended with Guillen, you’d basically have what Will Smith found in ‘I Am Legend.’”
“In a road-trip interview with Sox beat writer Joe Cowley, who works for the Sun-Times, Guillen comes off like a wayward patient on a couch.”
“I’m amazed that someone so quick to jab the knife has skin thinner than a hot-dog wrapper.”
“Guillen is so on and off the map, a GPS navigation series would go haywire trying to keep tabs on him.”
“He isn’t built to manage in this baseball-daffy city.”
“Everything bothers him, which in turn bubbles his blood and makes him say regrettable things.”
“Ozzie Guillen is a crazed, bitter man.”
Prey tell us Jay, of what professional merit do these descriptions of Ozzie Guillen serve to the greater good of ethical journalism?
And one final point Jay. Winning a championship is never an aberration.
That is what makes Ozzie Guillen a winner.
And you, a loser.