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Ozzie's School of Management: Lessons from the Dugout, the Clubhouse, and the Doghouse
Going behind the scenes with Ozzie Guillen, baseball's most colorful and irrepressible manager, to reveal the hidden factors that create a winning team When Ozzie Guillen opens his mouth, nobody knows what's going to come out. And that has made the manager of the Miami Marlins endlessly entertaining to legions of baseball fans. In language that is often as profane as it is colorful, he will lash out not only at his team's opponents but also at his own players, reporters, fans, and most of all, himself. He is always getting himself in hot water, and he loves every minute of it. Yet for all the antics and controversy, Guillen is also one of the game's best managers―a World Series champion and a perennial contender. This book opens the door on the secrets to his success. Ozzie's School of Management distills the ten commandments of managing, Guillen-style, which means no-holds-barred and leave your squeamishness at the door. The Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Rick Morrissey, who built a strong rapport with Guillen during his eight years with the Chicago White Sox, takes us on a rollicking ride through Ozzie's world, shining a light on his sharp intellect, organizational insights, and changing moods, and showing that the most important part of managing occurs before the first pitch and after the last out.
- GenresBaseballSportsNonfiction
288 pages, Hardcover
First published May 22, 2012
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April 9, 2023
RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: “OZZIE’S ACT GOT OLD IN CHICAGO… THE REPETITIVENESS OF THE AUTHOR DOES THE SAME”
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Though I don’t reside in Chicago, I believe that Chicago is one of the top 4-5 sports cities in America and even though the Chicago teams aren’t my favorite… if my team doesn’t win the World Series… the Super Bowl… the NBA championship… Stanley Cup… etc. I pull for Chicago and Boston. I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the street-fighting-straight-talking managers such as Billy Martin… and even further back Leo “The Lip” Durocher. But even from afar Ozzie’s antics the last few years i.e. battling general manager Kenny Williams on everything under the sun… both business wise and personal... his public threats and whining about a contract extension with owner Jerry Reinsdorf as well as Williams… wound down to the equivalent of a broken scratched record… extremely irritating. The author’s constant hashing and rehashing of the same exact thing over and over for two hundred pages… becomes… well… you know.
It probably isn’t humanly possible to tell the reader more than they’ve been told here regarding… that he’s a players manager… or that he always wants to take the blame for any losses or problems with player’s performances. But somehow… you are told more. Probably the best line in the book is when the author describes Guillen as ** THE CHARLES BARKLEY OF BASEBALL **. The only subject that statistically is in the same “ballpark” as his loyalty to his players… is his protective nature to his family. But I believe when the reader makes note of some of the tweets and comments his sons make to the public about the White Sox… it’s hard to side with Ozzie’s blind… repetitive… loyalty. How about some “tough-love” with the family? And talk about loyalty… it becomes repetitively non-sensical all the many times in this book that Ozzie swears loyalty to the Sox while considering an offer from the Marlins while still under contract with the Sox.
It’s made abundantly clear that Ozzie was probably vaccinated with a phonograph needle… as he yaks and yaks to anyone… and anything… and normally about the same few subjects… and so does the author. The following observation is for the benefit of potential readers that may have different moralities than I do because what I’m about to share doesn’t bother me… but may bother others. There are probably more F’s and MF’s per page in this book than in any book I’ve read in the last five years. That’s the way Ozzie and a lot of people talk (I’m one)… so no problem for me… but just a heads up. It’s also very interesting/amusing that this book was written right before Ozzie’s mind blowingly offensive comments about Fidel Castro got him suspended for a few games. (And Oz also has the Marlin’s knocking on first place’s door!)
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Though I don’t reside in Chicago, I believe that Chicago is one of the top 4-5 sports cities in America and even though the Chicago teams aren’t my favorite… if my team doesn’t win the World Series… the Super Bowl… the NBA championship… Stanley Cup… etc. I pull for Chicago and Boston. I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the street-fighting-straight-talking managers such as Billy Martin… and even further back Leo “The Lip” Durocher. But even from afar Ozzie’s antics the last few years i.e. battling general manager Kenny Williams on everything under the sun… both business wise and personal... his public threats and whining about a contract extension with owner Jerry Reinsdorf as well as Williams… wound down to the equivalent of a broken scratched record… extremely irritating. The author’s constant hashing and rehashing of the same exact thing over and over for two hundred pages… becomes… well… you know.
It probably isn’t humanly possible to tell the reader more than they’ve been told here regarding… that he’s a players manager… or that he always wants to take the blame for any losses or problems with player’s performances. But somehow… you are told more. Probably the best line in the book is when the author describes Guillen as ** THE CHARLES BARKLEY OF BASEBALL **. The only subject that statistically is in the same “ballpark” as his loyalty to his players… is his protective nature to his family. But I believe when the reader makes note of some of the tweets and comments his sons make to the public about the White Sox… it’s hard to side with Ozzie’s blind… repetitive… loyalty. How about some “tough-love” with the family? And talk about loyalty… it becomes repetitively non-sensical all the many times in this book that Ozzie swears loyalty to the Sox while considering an offer from the Marlins while still under contract with the Sox.
It’s made abundantly clear that Ozzie was probably vaccinated with a phonograph needle… as he yaks and yaks to anyone… and anything… and normally about the same few subjects… and so does the author. The following observation is for the benefit of potential readers that may have different moralities than I do because what I’m about to share doesn’t bother me… but may bother others. There are probably more F’s and MF’s per page in this book than in any book I’ve read in the last five years. That’s the way Ozzie and a lot of people talk (I’m one)… so no problem for me… but just a heads up. It’s also very interesting/amusing that this book was written right before Ozzie’s mind blowingly offensive comments about Fidel Castro got him suspended for a few games. (And Oz also has the Marlin’s knocking on first place’s door!)
May 26, 2012
Rick Morrissey has accomplished the impossible – translating a three-dimensional, fire-breathing, bull-fighting, passionate baseball player and manager to the one-dimensional printed page in OZZIE’S SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT: LESSONS FROM THE DUGOUT, CLUBHOUSE, AND DOGHOUSE. The current manager of the Miami Marlins and former manager of the World Series champion Chicago White Sox, Ozzie Guillen, stuff of baseball legend in his own time, springs to life on these pages. The reader feels present in the dugout, in the manager’s office, huddled with the players, and toe-to-toe with umpires.
Morrissey accomplishes this feat by meticulously documenting and reporting the nuances and outbursts of Ozzie’s colorful persona, and by giving the reader a strong sense of Guillen’s depth of character not always seen in the sound bites and news stories published about this passionate baseball manager. The author’s colorful descriptions add to the picture with sentences such as: “His managing style was more suited to the mosh pit than the board room,” “The man collects shrapnel the way kids collect baseball cards,” and “That was vintage Ozzie, showing trust and having patience.”
Ozzie Guillen’s love for the game is writ large on these pages, and Morrissey does an excellent job of demonstrating how this passion for the game and the way it should be played are the motivations for his managing style. Some of Guillen’s gems reported by Morrissey are: “When you don’t run the bases, you don’t respect me; you don’t respect your teammates; you don’t respect the people paying to watch you play;” “It’s easy to manage the guys having success. But being next to the guy who failed, being next to the people who need to be helped, that’s the hard part;” “Managing is like fishing. You put a hook on your line; you catch the fish; you let him go. You do it again. Back and forth, back and forth. You let the players play. When they don’t do the things they should be doing you call them back and tell them. Then you let them go to play again. That’s the way you deal with the players.”
This book was organized by “mission statement,” chapters headed by Morrissey’s take on tenets of Guillen’s management style, each supported by many vivid examples. Unfortunately, this structure also lends itself to a non-chronological organization, so the reader doesn’t learn about Guillen’s upbringing until 70 pages from the end. It is instructive to learn how Guillen’s childhood informed his strong belief that he must take full responsibility for his actions and to work hard, and it would have been helpful to have that woven into the earlier chapters. Morrissey does a good job of relating the intricacies of Guillen’s choice to leave the Sox for the Marlins, giving the reader a clear picture of the relationship between the general manager and Guillen, as well as an understanding of the subtleties involved, which were not always clear in the press. Also, to Morrissey’s credit, he never apologizes for Guillen’s x-rated language, but is able to create empathy for Guillen and his impetuousity through many examples of what Guillen was trying to accomplish, thus giving the reader an understanding of why he speaks as he does.
After reading this book, it would be difficult for any reader not to feel genuine respect and admiration for this talented baseball manager. Who could fail to like a manager about whom the author writes, “When a team plays well, he gives them the credit. When it doesn’t, he blames himself. That’s the beauty of baseball.”
Morrissey accomplishes this feat by meticulously documenting and reporting the nuances and outbursts of Ozzie’s colorful persona, and by giving the reader a strong sense of Guillen’s depth of character not always seen in the sound bites and news stories published about this passionate baseball manager. The author’s colorful descriptions add to the picture with sentences such as: “His managing style was more suited to the mosh pit than the board room,” “The man collects shrapnel the way kids collect baseball cards,” and “That was vintage Ozzie, showing trust and having patience.”
Ozzie Guillen’s love for the game is writ large on these pages, and Morrissey does an excellent job of demonstrating how this passion for the game and the way it should be played are the motivations for his managing style. Some of Guillen’s gems reported by Morrissey are: “When you don’t run the bases, you don’t respect me; you don’t respect your teammates; you don’t respect the people paying to watch you play;” “It’s easy to manage the guys having success. But being next to the guy who failed, being next to the people who need to be helped, that’s the hard part;” “Managing is like fishing. You put a hook on your line; you catch the fish; you let him go. You do it again. Back and forth, back and forth. You let the players play. When they don’t do the things they should be doing you call them back and tell them. Then you let them go to play again. That’s the way you deal with the players.”
This book was organized by “mission statement,” chapters headed by Morrissey’s take on tenets of Guillen’s management style, each supported by many vivid examples. Unfortunately, this structure also lends itself to a non-chronological organization, so the reader doesn’t learn about Guillen’s upbringing until 70 pages from the end. It is instructive to learn how Guillen’s childhood informed his strong belief that he must take full responsibility for his actions and to work hard, and it would have been helpful to have that woven into the earlier chapters. Morrissey does a good job of relating the intricacies of Guillen’s choice to leave the Sox for the Marlins, giving the reader a clear picture of the relationship between the general manager and Guillen, as well as an understanding of the subtleties involved, which were not always clear in the press. Also, to Morrissey’s credit, he never apologizes for Guillen’s x-rated language, but is able to create empathy for Guillen and his impetuousity through many examples of what Guillen was trying to accomplish, thus giving the reader an understanding of why he speaks as he does.
After reading this book, it would be difficult for any reader not to feel genuine respect and admiration for this talented baseball manager. Who could fail to like a manager about whom the author writes, “When a team plays well, he gives them the credit. When it doesn’t, he blames himself. That’s the beauty of baseball.”
June 5, 2012
One of the many reasons I love baseball is the characters you find associated with the game. Since a prime example of those characters is Ozzie Guillen, I was happy to win this book from LibraryThing. I thought it would be full of hilarious stories from his many years in the game, and since Morrissey is a Chicago area journalist, he should know the "real" Ozzie from Guillen's years with the White Sox.
The subtitle is "Lessons from the dugout, the clubhouse, and the doghouse." Even more reason to believe this would be funny. Now I wasn't born yesterday so I'm well aware that Ozzie's language is offensive, but I figured it would be easy to overlook. Well, this isn't the first time I've been totally wrong.
Ozzie cannot form even a partial sentence without saying F--- at least once, if not two or three times. Just for variety he often precedes this with "Mother" and he uses these words as nouns, verbs, adjectives and in every conceivable situation. And he's LOUD. It sounds like he's actually proud of his language, and yet he brags about how he learned English when he came here from Venezuela so he could fit in!
This book would have been excellent as a longish magazine article, but it just isn't right for a book. Morrissey tells the same things over and over so that as you get into the book you feel like you've read it before. And many of the stories just aren't that interesting, seemingly chosen more as examples of his foul language than for humor or insight.
I don't mean to completely demean either Ozzie or the book. Ozzie is a dedicated husband and father. He can be brilliant as a baseball manager, and there's a lot to be said for his way of communicating with his players. The cover shows him in full rage, right up in the face of an umpire, but that's his way of defending his players and showing them he's on their side. I think it would take a special person to get along with Ozzie but if a player can get along with him, he's got a friend for life.
When he's criticized for the way he spends money lavishly on his family, he tells people he works hard for his money and intends to enjoy it. He doesn't wish to save it up so his widow's boyfriend can have a good time with it. Now that's funny!
The subtitle is "Lessons from the dugout, the clubhouse, and the doghouse." Even more reason to believe this would be funny. Now I wasn't born yesterday so I'm well aware that Ozzie's language is offensive, but I figured it would be easy to overlook. Well, this isn't the first time I've been totally wrong.
Ozzie cannot form even a partial sentence without saying F--- at least once, if not two or three times. Just for variety he often precedes this with "Mother" and he uses these words as nouns, verbs, adjectives and in every conceivable situation. And he's LOUD. It sounds like he's actually proud of his language, and yet he brags about how he learned English when he came here from Venezuela so he could fit in!
This book would have been excellent as a longish magazine article, but it just isn't right for a book. Morrissey tells the same things over and over so that as you get into the book you feel like you've read it before. And many of the stories just aren't that interesting, seemingly chosen more as examples of his foul language than for humor or insight.
I don't mean to completely demean either Ozzie or the book. Ozzie is a dedicated husband and father. He can be brilliant as a baseball manager, and there's a lot to be said for his way of communicating with his players. The cover shows him in full rage, right up in the face of an umpire, but that's his way of defending his players and showing them he's on their side. I think it would take a special person to get along with Ozzie but if a player can get along with him, he's got a friend for life.
When he's criticized for the way he spends money lavishly on his family, he tells people he works hard for his money and intends to enjoy it. He doesn't wish to save it up so his widow's boyfriend can have a good time with it. Now that's funny!
May 19, 2012
To people who know him personally as well as those who only know about him, just saying the name “Ozzie” is likely to evoke a lively response. Whether you love him or not, it’s hard to remain neutral about his explosive personality. Rick Morrissey has done the impossible: he has captured the essence that is Ozzie and put it all down on paper. In Ozzie’s School of Management you will discover the real Ozzie. Underneath all that bluster beats a heart of gold for his family and for his players. While baseball is not Ozzie’s favorite sport (You want to know what is? Read the book!), he knows it inside and out – all the nuances that a good manager needs to know to be a great manager. This book will appeal to anyone who loves that great American pastime – baseball – but it also holds appeal to those who just love the study of people and what makes them tick. As complicated as Ozzie is, Morrissey delves under the public personality presented to fans to illustrate the man in need of approval and love by those he holds dear. Ozzie can and has been his own worst enemy, and though he knows it, sometimes he just can’t stop his mouth from getting him in trouble. He wasn’t managing long in Miami before his statements about Castro got him in hot water. Life with Ozzie may not run smooth, but at least it’s not boring! Morrissey masterfully helps you understand why Ozzie is the way he is, why he says what he thinks, and why he is and will remain one of baseball’s greatest managers. A word of warning: Many quotes from Ozzie are used in the book, and Ozzie flings profanity like a groundskeeper planting grass seed: it goes everywhere.
May 18, 2012
When I won this from first reads, I was pretty excited. I mean shouldn't we ALL take our life lessons from Ozzie Guillen? Doesn't that sound like a really intelligent thing to do? I'll state right away that my advance copy doesn't yet include the afterword set to be about Ozzie's beginning with the Marlins. No Fidel Castro here.
Overall, I rate this book as just ok. Meh. I guess the deliberate pandering to casual readers hoping for tons of insider CRAZY OZZIE isn't quite for me. It's another of the many current semi-profiles of famous people that doesn't actually need to exist. Perhaps when Ozzie's career is over, he'll have earned a book about his time in baseball. This one is premature. It's not even spun as 'Ozzie's time in Chicago.' It sort of tries to psychoanalyze him. Ozzie is Ozzie because he has abandonment issues and insecurity. He acts like a jerk, but it's REALLY a mask for something more respectable.
I enjoy crazy Ozzie as much as the next baseball fan. And I agree with what he says half the time if not the way he says it. Sometimes he makes valid points. Sometimes he's ridiculous. This author pretends to show both the good and the bad but really just gives excuses for most of the negative.
Overall, I rate this book as just ok. Meh. I guess the deliberate pandering to casual readers hoping for tons of insider CRAZY OZZIE isn't quite for me. It's another of the many current semi-profiles of famous people that doesn't actually need to exist. Perhaps when Ozzie's career is over, he'll have earned a book about his time in baseball. This one is premature. It's not even spun as 'Ozzie's time in Chicago.' It sort of tries to psychoanalyze him. Ozzie is Ozzie because he has abandonment issues and insecurity. He acts like a jerk, but it's REALLY a mask for something more respectable.
I enjoy crazy Ozzie as much as the next baseball fan. And I agree with what he says half the time if not the way he says it. Sometimes he makes valid points. Sometimes he's ridiculous. This author pretends to show both the good and the bad but really just gives excuses for most of the negative.
June 19, 2012
So---overall the message I got from this book: Take all blame for directs, engage in direct feedback and if you want something, talk in mixed code to let intentions known to others and the organization. This book should have been much shorter, the message is soooo repetitive that the bulk of the book becomes just a reinforcement of the message "assume feedback for performance so employees can feel free of that burden".
November 3, 2012
Good insight into Ozzie's tenure with the White Sox and a foretelling of how things would eventually turn out with the Marlins. Morrissey did a great job of telling the Ozzie's story without making him look like a cartoon character.
May 28, 2012
I received this book in a First Reads giveaway.
If you really love Ozzie you might like this book. Otherwise don't bother. Boring and repetitive.
If you really love Ozzie you might like this book. Otherwise don't bother. Boring and repetitive.
August 8, 2012
please see my review at http://theagencyreview.wordpress.com/...
December 31, 2014
When interesting information and interviews meet pedestrian writing, interesting loses.
September 26, 2012
The stories are interesting, but the rest is just so-so.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews