Like Ditka, Guillen will be missed
I played hooky from Lovie Smith’s media briefing Monday, as usual.
My recliner at home seemed a better place to doze off.
That’s something I’d never do when Mike Ditka was the Bears’ head coach. Which brings us back around to Ozzie Guillen a week after he and the White Sox parted ways.
Chicago has been blessed with two of the great sports characters in modern times and possibly of all time.
So when it is said that Guillen is one of a kind — for better or worse — that isn’t true.
Guillen essentially is baseball’s Ditka and Ditka essentially was football’s Guillen. Their styles and deliveries differed, but the Spanish translation of “Ditka” is “Guillen.”
They have so much in common, not the least being that Guillen won Chicago’s only World Series title since 1917 and Ditka won the city’s only Super Bowl title ever.
Ditka was a popular player for the Bears and Guillen a popular player for the Sox. Fans already were invested in their passion, intensity and zaniness before they became coach/manager.
Considering how combative they could be, it wasn’t surprising that Ditka had an ongoing feud with Bears president Mike McCaskey and Guillen had one with general manager Kenny Williams.
Most of all, though, both Guillen and Ditka were outrageously entertaining and entertainingly outrageous.
In a climate where coaches/managers are afraid to say anything that will get them fined, suspended or even fired, neither Ditka nor Guillen cared much for propriety.
Yes, they were sort of the anti-Lovie and anti-any other current or recent coach or manager in Chicago.
Consider that since the Bears fired Ditka after the 1992 season their head coaches have been Dave Wannstedt, Dick Jauron and Smith.
That’s like following a gangsta rapper with a church choir.
There never was going to be another Ditka around here until the Sox hired Guillen, and there won’t ever be another Guillen until the next one like him comes along.
Ditka was more widely popular than Guillen because as the Bears’ slogan says: “One city, one team.
With two baseball teams here, some Cubs fans disliked Guillen just because he was the Sox’ manager. Meanwhile, some Sox fans disliked him because he went from amusing to annoying when the club wasn’t winning.
The Ozzinator lasted only eight years here to Da Coach’s 11, probably in part because he met with the media twice a day to Ditka’s thrice a week.
Each made every day, every news conference, every news cycle, every word, sentence and paragraph compelling.
Some of Ditka’s pontifications were spontaneous and some were calculated, though it was hard to tell which was which. Maybe the same could be said for Guillen’s.
Ditka also was a master at licking an index finger, sticking it in the air and letting the wind judge how his most recent blurt was received. If it was negative he would act like he was kidding around.
Guillen was different in that respect. If you didn’t appreciate his pomposity he’d stick a different finger in your face.
Another difference was the way Ditka fired off smart-aleck responses to smart questions and Guillen filled notebooks with smart answers to dumb questions.
Ah, but now with neither Ditka nor Guillen in charge of a team around here anymore, don’t expect anything more compelling than Lovie Smith’s “and we’ll go from there.”
Please, somebody, say something interesting just to keep us from dozing off.
mimrem@dailyherald.com
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