CINCINNATI -- So how does Ozzie Guillen spend his free time after games when the team's on the road? Here's how he answered that question when I posed it to him before Thursday's game against the Reds:
"What do I do? What I do when I go anywhere, stay in the hotel bar, get drunk and go to sleep. I don't do anything out in New York. I don't do anything out in Cleveland. I've got my routine. I’ve got my batting practice routine. Game’s over, stay in the lobby of the hotel, the hotel bar, get drunk and go to sleep. I get drunk because I’m happy because we won or get drunk because I’m very sad and disturbed because we lose. Same routine. We do the same routine for 25, 28 years. It hasn’t changed. I don’t like to go out.”
“How many years have I been going to New York and I never saw the (Twin) Towers in my life. When I go to work, it’s go to work. Hotel, ballpark, ballpark, hotel, sushi place. Golf in the morning. That’s it.”
“I don’t have time. I have to be here early, and I go to sleep so drunk I have to recover until 11 o’clock. Why do I have to lie? People have to celebrate. I never get in trouble. You see that? I’m never going to leave the hotel. Nobody can call my wife and see we saw Ozzie in this bar or this place.”
“I lived in Miami for 12 years and I only went to South Beach three times in my life. I don’t like to go out. People think I like to go out. People think as soon as the game’s over I take my clothes off and say 'Where’s the best bar?' I don’t like that. I just want to relax. I’d rather be in my house with my wife, be on my boat. Even Chicago, not too many people see me out, and I live there. I walk my dog. I have a bar across the street from me. Sit at the bar for a couple of beers and come back.”
“That’s why I never get in trouble. I get in trouble, I get drunk and somebody talk (expletive) to me it’s a fight. That’s why I prevent that. I’m too little to fight. If I had Stanton’s size, I’d be looking for fights, but I can’t. I might get killed.”
With Ozzie, I'm not sure how much to believe. I haven't been around him enough to know. My best hunch is that, like a lot of major league managers, coaches and players, he has a few drinks after games at the team hotel and goes to bed. As it turned out, I spotted him leaving a downtown restaurant -- one that's connected to the team hotel -- a few hours after the Marlins' loss yesterday. He was with his wife and family. looking sharp in a suit. He did not appear drunk.
It sounds like Ozzie wants to come across as 'dumb' as a fox. That's why he's a good manager....unpredictable.
Posted by: spitballer | April 06, 2012 at 09:08 PM
who cares what Ozzie does on his own time???
Posted by: shaky the gimp | April 06, 2012 at 09:37 PM
You know who else got drunk after games? The 2011 Boston Red Sox. To be fair, though, they also got drunk during the game.
Posted by: bob | April 06, 2012 at 10:26 PM
OK, sometimes Ozzie its best to keep that mouth shut. I applaud that you go to bed drunk from the hotel bar as opposed to hopping behind the wheel but I can think of many better things to spend that per diem money on. Then again maybe not, if I were the Manager and my team got 1/2 a dozen hits in 2 games combined I'd be hitting the bottle pretty hard too. Oh well. Go Marlins!
Posted by: rbleigh | April 06, 2012 at 11:40 PM
His liver must be pickled. If I were an alcoholic, I wouldn't be bragging about it.
Posted by: Richard Nixon 2012 | April 07, 2012 at 12:24 AM
gotta get drunk on a daily basis to work for the carnival shysters Loria and Samson...after that pre-game disaster the other nite, Ozzie needed to hit the pipe, also.
Posted by: john w | April 07, 2012 at 04:40 AM
Number 1 - Ozzie doesn't realize that when talking to Clark Spencer that he needs to preface certain answers to his questions with, "Off the record."
Number 2 - Clark Spencer doesn't realize that certain answers to his questions fall under "privileged" information and should be view as that and NOT printed or written about as "Off the record."
Number 3 - Ozzie was just baiting Clark Spencer to see if what he said to Senior' Spencer would be printed as copy.
Number 4 - If so, Clark Spencer is the typical TMZ new style Journalist that will hide under the "well he said it, so I can print it" defense.
Number 5 - Ozzie now knows one less writer he can trust.
Posted by: You Won't Get Invited To The Club Car On The Train Now Clark... | April 07, 2012 at 05:15 AM
Why is it important what Ozzie does on his own time, is that really a question. He's a representative of the team first and foremost. If he bellies up at the bar and gets drunk, then gets a DUI do you think that's OK too. I understand he was in a hotel in Cin. But that's not how to represent the team, or how to represent himself to the player on his team.
Posted by: Mike | April 07, 2012 at 11:43 AM
For all you peabrains who think Ozzie really gets drunk every night, I've got some oceanfront property I'd like to sell you in North Dakota. Wow! It's a joke, folks, so get real. How dumb do you have to be to take that stuff seriously?
Posted by: dumbfounded | April 07, 2012 at 11:55 AM
To you won't get invited, Palm Beach Post writer won't get invited to club car either because he had similiar article in today's paper, only he didn't write that he saw Ozzie in restaurant with wife...not drunk. So it wasn't "off the record"
Posted by: Tracy | April 07, 2012 at 07:10 PM
who cares about Ozzie, he should spend his off time learning hot to speak english
Posted by: OnLine | April 07, 2012 at 10:02 PM
I agree with bov poster. Ozzie might have though they're talkin off the record. Or Ozzie wa baiting him to se what Miami reporters he Dan trust. Hopefully he told Ozzie ha was gonna pint their drunk talk. An people, there's nothing wring with a few drinks Afte a long day park. Unlike NFL or even NBA t marlins hav 81 road games an some in between days off so prob 4 months of traveling. Think abo that. Plus they stay n star resorts with nice menu bars also. Nothin wrong with that
Posted by: Dom | April 07, 2012 at 10:34 PM