Ozzie’s School of Management: Lessons from the Dugout, the Clubhouse, and the Doghouse

Along with those other maverick baseball managers Bill Martin and Lou Piniella, Ozzie Guillen, who has managed eight seasons after playing 13 seasons for the Chicago White Sox in the 1980s and 1990s, is the perfect candidate for critical analysis by Morrissey, a sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Morrissey relishes his job of chronicling Guillen, the “Charles Barkley of baseball,” with his outrageous remarks, fiery temper, and constant bickering with his players and the front office. Taking apart Guillen’s strategies of management, the author shows the controversial baseball pilot in a variety of situations, motivating the players, sizing up the opposition, and trading barbs with the press. What the reader learns is that the manager’s job is more than juggling statistics or changing the batting order; it’s about managing human beings with sometimes limited talent, large egos, and a losing record in a long season, according to Morrissey. His remarkable stories about Guillen, who coached the Sox to a 2005 World Series win and will head the Miami Marlins this year, reflects everything that is good about America’s favorite pastime, whether it’s in the dugout or the clubhouse. (May)