MLB WORLD SERIES: ASTROS v WHITE SOX

October 24, 2005

Ozzie Guillen

OZZIE GUILLEN: On behalf of the White Sox organization, I just don't think we could control that. But I think the family is a big part of my life. I think especially the kids. And when that happened in the ballpark, you feel you need to be supportive. When you're a man and you hit a lady, no matter whose wife it is or whose sister it is, you respect them. I will talk to him about it tomorrow to apologize and say sorry about the incident. But it's something it's tough to control. It happened so quick. And I know that the security in Chicago is doing a great job, and when something happens so quick, you can't blame anybody. And the guy that did it, he should be -- brought to Biggio, and he's the one that can hopefully get him back. I told the police, don't put him in jail, bring him to me in the dugout. But hopefully that won't happen again.

OZZIE GUILLEN: Well, they're good at-bats. People moving over, bunting. Obviously we don't have the opportunity to practice that too much, but we play Inter-League games, we did a pretty good job. I think the pitching here does a pretty good job. I don't worry about Freddie and Garland, because they're here before, but Jose, you know the background being a hitter. But they come out healthy, and when you're a pitcher you have to help yourself and hopefully we'll do it.

OZZIE GUILLEN: The only difference is the pitcher is here -- I play National League for a couple of years, I coach the National League three years. I manage for National League for two years. You don't have the DH and you have to be careful about the double switch. Besides that it's the same type of ballgame. We play similarly -- maybe my game change a little bit because sometimes I want to hit with the 6th and 7th guy, and they want to walk, it's a little different, but we're going to see what happens. Hopefully the -- is it different, yes.

OZZIE GUILLEN: Do I worry about it? No, it's not my job. If you get to the place with the umpires, things happen so quick and so close, it's not easy for a human being to make the reaction or see what happened. When that happened in Anaheim, nobody can see it. Like last night, I just saw it this morning, like, because they have the right camera and the right time in the right place, you can't see it, because it happened so close and so fast that you can't really -- you can't really judge what you can see. If that happened safe or out with all the bases, it's different. But the thing happened for us, it work for us, we take advantage of that. But it happened so short and so quick, it's really tough for the umpire to make the calls.

OZZIE GUILLEN: I was hitting his cheeks. I was hitting him so hard, you know, it's like, you're hitting me pretty hard. But as soon as the ball leave the park, obviously all the team went out, and I was looking around for Bobby. You don't have to look twice, because you can see him right away (laughter). And I looked twice, because I know how he feel. When you see Buehrle -- I just saw it this morning, I saw Buehrle hugging him, that's us, that's the way we are, don't worry about it, just get it tomorrow. And I was looking for him to say, be ready for next day. And you've got to pick the one that's down and pick him up and holding him and make sure you believe in him. Last night at dinner, this morning when I went to the clubhouse, the first thing I did, put my uniform on and talked to him. And he was playing cards and I said, hey, we believe in you, be ready for the game, because you're going to be back to do it.

OZZIE GUILLEN: I had a chance to see him when I was coaching in the National League. I think to me one of the best pitchers in the National League. With all due respect to Clemens, Clemens is not the best pitcher in the National League; he's the best, period, any League you make. But we've got to face one of the toughest guys in the game right now. He's got a great arm. He know -- he's back in his house and he's not going to be easy. Hopefully we'll stay close to him and do the best we can. But we face another tough one.

OZZIE GUILLEN: Ozney, Oney and Oswaldo -- the ages? Oh. (Laughter). I know Ozzie is old enough to go to the bar and drink. It's 21, 19 -- 21, 20 and 13. To me, having my kids -- it's nice for parents when you go to work and they can have their kids in this moment. We went through a lot of things, a lot of difficulty in my life as a player, coach, a lot of nice things. We went to the World Series before together, as a player, as a coach. Now, about my kids, they don't treat people as Ozzie Guillen's kids. They're another one in the clubhouse. They help. They're the players' friends. You see every time we win or lose a game the guys next to me know the kids. It's nice for them to be next to me and feel the experience with me.

OZZIE GUILLEN: Yes, you have to be behind, because -- today I was in the clubhouse and we were watching the highlights. You do some pump you up and making -- want to come back and play again. But in the meanwhile you've got to be careful because -- not because you win one game that way, you've got to win the next two. And in a short series you have to be careful. We play all year long just like that. No matter what you do today, just prepare yourself for tomorrow, don't get too cocky, don't get too high, just be the same players every day. That's why I think we prepare very well for that. We know we beat a couple of guys, but tomorrow is going to be a tough thing to do. We've got to play against the best in the National League.

OZZIE GUILLEN: It's hard to say because -- if you look at the home run, the missed plays in the business, I think they should. But when you miss a tag, it's so easy. Everything happens so fast, and like I said, the play against us, when (Kelvim) Escobar was pitching. You cannot see all the way, TV put it in real slow motion, if that happened in the '80s we wouldn't see it, because the technology no was that good. Now there is so many and they have camera on the field. They have camera on the bases, they have camera everywhere. It's not easy to umpire in this level right now because they have so many different equipment on the field for the fans. It's tough. But they don't miss a home run call like the way I see in the past. If it was missing, it was missing pretty tough calls.

OZZIE GUILLEN: Not really. I think we got J.D., he was one of the "if". They thought if this kid was hurt, he was replacing the best player ever play for the White Sox. It's not easy to replace Magglio (Ordonez). A lot of people respect that. I think J.D. is a gamer, is a professional on the field, off the field. He's a great team man. He was so good I moved him from 6th to third when the team was in trouble. I think he swing the bat real well and he carried the team, got a big hit for us, played tremendous defense. And I'm really glad we picked him up. And remember this, I think he turned down one million dollars, two million dollars from another team to play for us, that shows you what kind of guy he is."

OZZIE GUILLEN: Well, we hit only two home runs during the season, we had a couple of big runs early in the playoffs. I thought I would see better pitching performance, because our pitching staff is pretty good, so is them. I think the performance on pitching and defense going to be a lot better. Right now they not throw the ball people thought they going to do it. And we just got a lot of clutch hitting. You've got Burkeman a double with two outs, Vizcaino with two outs, Podsednik with one out and -- we do a lot of things with two outs. I say before the series start, whoever get the most hits with two outs is the one that's going to win.