Reactions to Guillen’s tirade
There’s blame to go around.
If you are out of the loop on what happened, here’s a short recap:
A.J. Pierzynski made his usual appearance on The Mike North Morning Show for 670 The Score, a Chicago sports radio station. During their talk, Pierzynski expressed some frustration about not being in the starting lineup yesterday.
That’s mistake No. 1. It’s not A.J.’s place to criticize Ozzie’s decisions.
Shortly after, Ozzie called into Mike North’s show (audio here) and began an obscenity-laced tirade. Mistake No. 2.
Then, North blew up at Guillen for swearing on his show. Mark that as mistake No. 3.
North didn’t let Guillen get a word in after that and he hung up the phone, at which point North continued to attack Guillen.
Now, these are three personalities that I know pretty well. Pierzynski is a punk. I respect his game and the way he plays, but he’s a punk. I think we all know that about him. He’s up there with Curt Schilling as the most hated ballplayers as voted on by the players themselves.
Guillen doesn’t like to be questioned. Once he makes up his mind on something, it is very difficult to change his mind. And we all know he’s prone to do things on a whim, regardless of whether he means it or not, i.e. calling Jay Mariotti a fag.
Mike North, whom I know a thing or two about having worked at The Score last summer, is also a punk. He’s been in trouble his fair share of times as well. He got in trouble last year for calling Cubs pitcher Jae-Kuk Ryu an offensive term for someone from China. Ryu is from South Korea, not that that makes it any better.
So what we have here are three people, who have quite similar personalities, getting into a war of words.
Nobody was right and nobody won. Nobody was justified in doing what they did.
Mike North is an idiot, and Guillen played right into his hands by calling into the show. Ozzie needs to show a little more class. If he doesn’t care what other people think about his lineup, what’s he doing listening to the Score in the first place?
He came off looking real bad in this incident, and it may be a second strike for him.
Ozzie had a meeting with Kenny Williams and A.J. and they seem to have smoothed things over.
I love Ozzie’s passion and I (usually) respect his managerial decisions (post coming about an instance that I didn’t later today). But this sort of episode is inappropriate and is an absolute blemish on the White Sox.
The White Sox never draw as well as the Cubs, and 2005 proved that if they want to outdraw their North Side neighbor, they’ll need to win. Ozzie’s remarks Friday are a big step backward in trying to embrace a fanbase they earned with a World Series.
Just, out.
May 19th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I hate Mike North as much as the next non-WASP, but I don’t know where his mistake was in all this.
Well, the only mistake North made was that it was probably smart to sit AJ, because catchers often sit in a day game after a night game (Maybe I’m just a huge Toby Hall fan).
But I think North was doing his job by questioning the decision to sit AJ, and he should just get in trouble for the anti-black, asian, women, jewish comments he makes on a daily, err make that hourly basis…
May 19th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
North did his job — to a point. Go back and listen to the tirades. And I do mean tirades in the plural. North unleashed on Guillen and when Ozzie finally got the point, North wouldn’t let him get a word in. He kept interrupting until Ozzie just hung up. It was pretty classless.
May 19th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Who gets in trouble when Ozzie swears on the air? Mike North. I don’t blame him for being angry.
May 19th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Mike North is in no danger of losing his job when Ozzie CALLS IN to the show and brings national attention to the Chicago radio station.
May 19th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Mike North and the Score are responsible for the content of the show. They let Ozzie on, which was a mistake obviously. North gets in trouble with the FCC when Ozzie goes on a tirade.
May 20th, 2007 at 12:36 am
scott s good point. this was an extremely odd incident. but i guess u can chalk it up to ozzie being ozzie. i love and hate the man for this reason. sometimes his off the field stuff is money and is great for the sox. but with this u get some of the negative. i feel it usually balances out and has no effect on the team at the end of the day and the bullpen will still pick a horrendous time to have a mini slump. two games we lead past the 7th and they screw it up.
and for interleague…. maybe we only do need one series a year its not worth it to go through this hoopla twice a year.
May 20th, 2007 at 8:24 am
You’re allowed to bleep on the air. That’s not an FCC violation.
May 20th, 2007 at 11:12 am
I have only seen transcripts of the convo, but are you sure that it was bleeped live and not just in the recording you listened to?
May 20th, 2007 at 11:39 am
u cant bleep it when its live. this isnt TV i dont think they have 5 second delay or anything.
May 20th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Actually, you can. There is a 7 second delay and you can drop anything you want. I didn’t hear it live, though, so I can’t say for sure.
May 20th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Our candidate really wishes that Ozzie could put last year’s unfortunate incident “behind him” as to prevent these types of unfortunate radio outbursts.
http://boisewantsjay.wordpress.com/2007/05/20/our-candidate-is-not-here-to-talk-about-the-past/
May 26th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
here are some better visuals to go along with the Guillen/North audio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuUMw7fdPOI
May 26th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Oh great stuff. Thanks, Pudge.