In case you weren’t convinced the Grimsley case had wide ranging repercussions, if nothing else, it has provided the Chicago Sun-Times’ Jay Mariotti (above) with yet another opportunity to take a swipe at Ozzie Guillen.
“The only thing I can say is that a former player should shut up and go,” Guillen said after Grimsley, a journeyman pitcher who played for seven major-league teams, provided steroids information to the feds. “Shut up and move on. We don’t need these guys here. Baseball is better without him.”
Of course, Guillen had a parting shot for Grimsley as he walked out of the interview room Thursday night. “Shoot the [bleep],” he said.
I have a better idea: Why not let the feds grill Ozzie for a few hours? He certainly has opinions about everything, such as who has used and who hasn’t.
Guillen is the face and voice of the Sox’ organization, and if he endorses a blanket lack of cooperation by Grimsley and anyone else who has steroids knowledge, he’s saying baseball is bigger than the laws of the land. We all know the game has been sullied by steroids. What we finally are starting to grasp is that hundreds upon hundreds of players, not just dozens, might have been using. If we’re playing by Man Rules here, Grimsley is viewed as a snitch by those in the sacred domain of the baseball clubhouse. That is rock-headed and arrogant thinking.
If the Grimsleys of a grimy world are a means to an end, then I want to know everything they know. There can be no code of clubhouse honor, Ozzie, when there has been such little honor in the clubhouse. You are the one who needs to “shut up” and let justice take its course.
Amen.
I am a rabid White Sox fan who is greatful for the success brought about by the team of Williams and Guillen. That gratitude, however, does not mean I condone the stream of sometimes incoherent, sometimes offensive, but always thoughtless comments made by manager Ozzie Guillen.
Putting it simply, if baseball has to choose between a group of steroid-using players who keep baseball’s “code of honor” versus a group of non steroid-using players who “snitch” on one another about steroid use there’s no doubt that I would want the latter and not the former.
Ozzie’s little rant on Grimsley is just one of many inappropriate comments made by a man who apparently acts as if all random thoughts in his brain should immediately be published verbally in front of a reporter’s microphone.
The frequency of Ozzie Guillen’s offensive remarks is really casting doubts on the larger organization. Do Kenny Williams and/or Jerry Reisnsdorf have no control over his public comments? Do they agree with many of them? Do they believe that they should exert no influence over what he says in public even though he is the most public face of the organization? It’s time for Williams and/or Reinsdorf to put a muzzle on Ozzie the commentator and keep him doing what he does pretty well i.e. managing the team on the field.