CLEVELAND -- Ozzie Guillen doesn't follow the NBA and, until reporters told him about it, wasn't familiar with last night's incident in Indianapolis when Dwyane Wade mouthed off at Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra in the third quarter. But Guillen said if any player tried that with him, there'd be fisticuffs.
"He can guarantee a fight," Guillen said, adding that Wade's actions were "disrespectful."
Guillen said no player has ever confronted him the way Wade did to Spoelstra, but said there would be trouble if it ever happened.
"I will kick his (butt)," Guillen said. "Well, I won't say I'll kick his (butt). They'll kick my (butt) because they're bigger than me, and I'm older. But I will take my chances. Some people they have to understand our job. Some players, they think they know more baseball than you do. They don't know what we're thinking."
Guillen said he never confronted a player, but felt that he once disrespected a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox by something he said to him when he went to the mound to lift him from the game. He said he immediately realized his mistake and apologized to that player.
"I did it once and I apologized to everyone (the player's teammates)," Guillen said. "I did it on the mound. As soon as I came back (to the dugout), I said, 'Listen, I apologize as a man because I respect you as a man.' I made a big mistake to embarrass him on the mound."
As for the Wade/Spoelstra incident, Guillen said this:
"I don't know Wade. I don't know the coach. That's disrespectful. Why he said it? When he said it? That's none of my business. (But) he can guarantee a fight."
Guillen said he can understand how a player, in the heat of the moment, might become upset if he is to remove him from the game.
"You know how many players I take out of the game, and they go up in the back (clubhhosue) and talk crap about me?" Guillen said. "I don't care. Because I'm going to talk crap about them. Because if I take you out of a game, it's for a reason."
Guillen said he's starting to notice more players being disrespectful to coaches and managers. He said it could be because coaches and managers today are closer in age to the players.
"Before, the coaches had white hair and big bellies, smoking a cigar," Guillen said. "Okay, that's my grandpa.' Now a lot of young guys have the same age as the coaches."
