Imrem: Perfect landing spot for Ozzie's return

How nice it was to see Ozzie Guillen's name back on the sports pages, even if it wasn't for saying or doing anything crazily dramatic.

I miss Guillen almost as much as I do Mike Ditka and not just because each helped deliver the rare championship to Chicago.

Guillen and Ditka had pulses that pulsated the city. They were wired and wired the fandom. They were entertainers who entertained their audiences.

Kenny Williams said over the weekend that Guillen should be back in baseball, which reminded me of a thought I have had for a while.

The Mets should be the place … maybe sooner than later.

Scratch off teams in small markets because Guillen is a big-market personality. Scratch off teams just starting to rebuild because he belongs with a team ready to win.

Mets ownership believes its team is ready and has put pressure on manager Terry Collins to deliver.

Williams' other news flash was that he and Guillen had a nice conversation and were mending their frayed relationship.

Good for them. Williams, as White Sox general manager, and Guillen, as their manager, were responsible for Chicago's only World Series title since 1917.

After that glorious 2005 season, Williams and Guillen feuded like schoolkids, and one had to go. The latter went to the Marlins.

Guillen has been out of baseball since 2012 and it's time for him to be back in.

The Ozzinator isn't for everyone, of course. He is outspoken, outrageous, a career controversy in waiting.

Guillen, a former longtime Sox shortstop, was polarizing as their manager and during his single season with Miami.

That will have to change - tone it down, temper opinions, resist fiery impulses - before another big-league team will dare to give Guillen another opportunity.

Gullen is 51, an age where many men are ready to quit arguing arguments just for the sake of argument.

Mature just a bit is all Guillen needs to do while maintaining an edge. As Williams suggested, baseball can use all the spicy personalities like Guillen that it can get.

Like a great player who at 80 percent healthy is better than most at 100 percent, 80 percent of Guillen's old self will be colorful enough to make the sport more interesting.

Oh, by the way, Guillen is a good manager, too. That opinion isn't universal, but it says here that he will be among MLB's 10 best the first day he's back on the job.

So why the Mets?

Partly because they are the second team in New York to the Yankees like the White Sox are in Chicago to the Cubs.

The Mets and Sox always have to shout, "Hey, what about us?" Could any manager steal the back page of the New York tabloids from the Yankees better than even a mellower Guillen could?

The Mets are building around outstanding young pitchers and will replace Collins if they don't win soon.

One question is whether Mets general manager Sandy Alderson, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, would hire the eccentric Guillen.

They would be an odd couple, for sure, but Alderson and Tony La Russa are tight. La Russa managed Guillen with the Sox and spoke well of him when they managed against each other.

Yep, now that it's time for Guillen to get back into the game, the Mets should be his landing spot.

Regardless of where it is, though, baseball could do worse than having Ozzie Guillen back in the dugout and back in the news.