Ozzie wants changes:
"We've got to get out of here, and hopefully, we play better in Toronto (a four-game series starting tonight). If not, there are going to be a lot of surprises, believe me. I'm not here to make friends; I'm here to do a job. I'm not doing my job right now, obviously, I'm not. Get out of here, and continue to play, continue to play better if we can. If not, somebody else will. ... If you're going to get traded, play better because they're not going to trade names, they're going to trade players to help someone else win. If they're thinking about free agency here, if you continue to have the year you're having, good luck in the market. ... If we continue to fail out of the bullpen, there's going to be some changes that are made. Because if I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail the right way. I'm going to lose my job pushing the right buttons. ... If (chairman) Jerry (Reinsdorf) thinks I'm not doing my job or this team would play better without me, I'll move on, because the only thing I want for the White Sox fans and the owner for this ballclub is to have success ... I don't want to leave. Believe me, I want to stay here for another 10 years -- I don't think I'm going to manage more than 10 years. I want to finish my career here. If somebody up there, my bosses, they think I'm not handling this ballclub right, don't feel bad because the only World Series we won the last 100 years was Ozzie. That's bull(bleep)."
It's the same old:
"I’m sitting here and watching since July of last year to right now, the same (bleep). If I’m going to get fired, good. If this team’s going to get better with me out of here, I’ll be happy. But as long as I’m here, we’ve got to play this (bleep) better. As long as I’m running this ballclub, we have to play better."
Ozzie on the lineups:
"There's going to be three guys, maybe four guys there every day. There will be (Paul) Konerko, (Jermaine) Dye, (Darin) Erstad and (Jim) Thome ... (Everyone else) can get mad if they're not in the lineup, they can get upset with me. Meanwhile, it's my job to win with the best players, not with my best friends. All those guys are my friends. I love them to death. They play hard for me; that's one thing I expect from them; they respect me. But in the meanwhile, every time I've got the lineup card, I have to put the best lineup out there, and so far, I haven't done it."
Joe Cowley's, and Scot Gregor's entries.
Here's the latest installment of Jim award-winning AL Central Trail. Two gloves up!
BTW, The Tribune has a Chicago Sports Spelling Bee. How many did you got correct? And, MLB.com will air it's Baseball Draft preview showat 1 p.m. local time.