Some White Sox fans thought Ozzie Guillen’s criticism of Tony La Russa was him coming for the managerial job, but the baseball legend cleared things up.
You can always count on Ozzie Guillen to have something to say, for better or worse. And there’s been a mix of both for the former Chicago White Sox manager.
Not only did he get into a Twitter beef with MLB insider Jon Heyman on Wednesday but that incident came days after he sent some waves through fans on the Southside when he referred to manager Tony La Russa as “Rick Renteria with credentials.”
While there has been plenty of criticism of La Russa throughout a disappointing 2022 season for the White Sox in which they’ve looked miles away from being the contenders many expected them to be this season, some around the baseball perceived the comments as Guillen trying to make a play for La Russa’s job.
Thus, Guillen had to set the record straight on the White Sox postgame show on Wednesday (you know, after his busy day of Twitter beefing).
White Sox: Ozzie Guillen clears up criticism of Tony La Russa
“I do respect the man. Why? It’s a guy, I looked for him for all of my career, as a player, as a coach, as a manager, the guy helped me a lot,” Guillen said about La Russa in regards to his previous comments.
Guillen clarified that, while Chicago is a passionate town, that his criticism was just a blunt assessment of a man he respects. You can see his full comments about the situation and rumors below.
It’s clear that Guillen didn’t mean what many fans believed he did with his comments, but that doesn’t make his remarks have any less teeth. But at the same time, La Russa has been criticized throughout the league all year, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that a player with intimate knowledge of the franchise — and with a penchant for hyperbole — would address that in such a way.