Ozzie Guillen Good Quotations

On paper we look really strong. We have another year to compete. Hopefully we stay healthy. I think we have another good year.

My country, we're not together and we are now and just because the White Sox win. It's a great feeling to be part of that. It's a great feeling to know you do something good for your country - because I know how they feel.

Nobody's talking about him, but he's a guy who's had a good start, too.

Freddy likes to compete. The Detroit Tigers, to me are the best lineup in the Central, no doubt about it. (Garcia) likes to get himself to the next level. He likes to pitch in big games. You want to face good hitters? You face the Detroit Tigers.

From the beginning, with Joe, I said that the expectations were so high and when he didn't play up to those expectations, he suddenly is not a good player. Hopefully, his offense continues to get better. But we expect any player to get better every year.

I always say you're a good coach when you have good players, ... We have a pretty good pitching staff, it's easy to go coach that one. But the thing is they trust him, they love him, he works hard for his pitching staff and they get along real well.

If we make the playoffs and if the time is good for him and if he is the best guy to throw the ball, he will be the first pitcher. If not, we will see what happens.

He will know the league better. Last year he battled the league every day--he didn't know the pitchers. Now he has one year under his belt. With a lot of confidence, he should have a good year.

If I named all that I'm disappointed about, we might be here all day. The entire week was disappointing. Even the game we won, I was disappointed. If we continue to play like this, good luck.

I feel that we have a better lineup than we're showing. But we have been really struggling the last week and a half. No one in our lineup is swinging the bat well right now. I think some of the guys are trying too hard and good things are just not happening for us right now.

I said a couple weeks ago that if we score four runs, we should win. That's the way we built our team. We have a good pitching staff. That's our game, pitching and defense.

I want Vazquez to be Vazquez. I want him to show up. He's a good pitcher. He does not have to come here and carry the team. He just has to do what he has done in the past.

I might be scaring him. Maybe it's my fault to go there and air him out. I might take the blame because all of a sudden I went out to air him out and said not good stuff to him. I might surprise him and scare him and all of a sudden he loses what he has. It's maybe my fault to do what I did.

I'm happy for him. He's one of my buddies from the Marlins, and it's good to see him back.

I'm so happy for these kids. A lot of people started doubting us. Even we started doubting us. But then we started believing again, started playing good baseball again, and I like the way we're playing going into the playoffs.

I think Jackie Robinson made us a lot of money. He opened doors for a lot of good things in baseball.

I thought I would see better pitching performances because our pitching staff is pretty good and so is theirs, ... Right now, they're not throwing the ball the way people thought.

I think with our offense, the way we're hitting right now, we're going to take advantage of every mistake any team makes. I don't how well we're hitting with two outs, but we're doing a pretty good job.

I think he's swinging at better pitches. He's not trying to pull everything. He's trying to hit the ball into the middle of the field and right field. We wish this kid would be more consistent with that. When this kid is on, he's on for good and we need those hitters at the bottom of the lineup.

I think its really disappointing. Jim Thome did a lot of good things for this town. It was kind of embarrassing. I was really surprised.

I think it's right to say that. I think he had a good reason to say that, but it's not in my hands.

I think it's great because we proved a lot of people wrong, and I think I like that. I call it low key. We took a lot of beatings this year during the year about my team, and we just kept playing. Good thing my players don't listen to what I was saying to the media.

I think it's going to be a real attractive and weird World Series because you've got two teams that aren't supposed to be there. You're not going to see the big-name franchises. Nothing against them. I think it's just good for baseball, these two franchises that have never been there -- one the first time ever, the other people forget when was the last time.

We'll let people know when we play bad, and I'll let my players know when they play good. I think my players should go to sleep good today, keep his head up and be ready tomorrow to play.

We're winning because our starting pitching has been great and our bullpen has done a good job. To win the series was really important to us.

We had great players, but we were not a great team (in 2004). We hit more home runs than anybody, but we gave up more home runs than anybody. We could not play defense, we could not pitch, we could not execute. You don't do those three things in baseball, good luck.

We enjoyed it; we had a good time. But it's kind of like we had to give a little attention to everyone. Now we're on a road trip, and we don't have to deal with all this stuff. Hopefully, we'll play better.

That's the way we play, good defense, good pitching and get clutch hitting. That's what we did last season.

We built this team around defense and pitching. I think our defense was one of the biggest reasons we won the World Series, no doubt about it. I knew we were going to play good defense all year long.

We built this team around defense and pitching. When you've got good defense, your pitching staff is going to be better because they're not going to make that many mistakes.

We came back and that's something I feel good about. We never give up.

We thought he had a good secondary lead so Joey (Cora, third base coach) took a chance and sent him. It took a good throw like that to get him.

We appreciate the way the fans have turned out this year. But you have an empty feeling in your stomach when you come out and see half of the ballpark empty. The players earned the people to be watching. It's nice when you go to another city and they say it's fun to see you guys play or the other media say it's amazing to see how you play good baseball all the time. And then you come to Chicago and you feel like you are missing something. You feel like we've done what we have to do to bring people to the ballpark.

Bobby Cox called me last night and said, 'You'll never retire from baseball; make them retire you,' ... He called me like 4 yesterday and said: 'You're too good a baseball man; people like you. Make those guys fire you. Keep taking money away from them.'

Besides that, we've got a Plan B. We're always prepared, just in case he couldn't make it. But that's pretty good news.

Everyone was concerned, because I was only throwing 85, but it was good today. It gives me a chance to keep Alex sharp.

Everybody is chasing us, everybody wants to play good against us. No doubt about it. We have to take the same approach as we have in the past. We have to play the game the way we've always played the game. Don't believe the hype. You have to go there and play the game and not worry about what people think.

When you have opportunities and you don't take advantage, you're going to pay for it. I think it was a pretty good ballgame. Garland threw the ball pretty good, Cotts and Politte threw the ball real good. It was just a home run in that inning. Three home runs killed us.

Before I got the job, Jon never had the opportunity to go more than six, seven innings. They always pulled him out, and all of a sudden I give him the chance and he took advantage. I think this kid's arm is there. This kid gives 200 innings every year, he never misses a start. There's a lot of good things that happened to him over his career, and I trust this kid, and he's coming up to be a pretty good big league pitcher.

We didn't pitch well. He left a couple pitches hanging against a pretty good ball club. The effort overall wasn't there to win the game.

That play could have cost the game. A ball on the line and a couple of runs are going to score. Ozuna has been playing well for us. He's playing pretty good defense and doing well at the plate.

That's important for every manager. You play good against your division, you have a better chance to have a better year.

The park wasn't in good condition to play. To wait that long wasn't good. It was the right thing to call the game.

This city owes him a lot. This kid loved this city and he did a good thing for them. (Today) he just got his butt kicked. That's it. He just didn't have it.

I love the way my team played today. I will let you know when my team plays real bad, and I think we played pretty good baseball. They just beat us.

I want strikes. No matter how hard you throw, you are not going to get people out if you are behind hitters. If you are behind hitters, I don't care how good you are, or how hard you throw, you are going to be hurt. I expect him to throw more strikes and attack the strike zone.

The fans in Chicago waited so long with so much patience and were still there for us, rooting for us for I don't know how many years. Good thing we did it.

I know he has good enough stuff to beat any team in the league. It's proven. Garland is different than the rest of the guys because when he doesn't perform, it seems like he doesn't care. Everybody has a different way to handle himself.

I really like our team right now. Frank was Frank, and we're going to miss him, but Jim Thome is one of the best hitters in baseball. He's healthy, so we're not worried about last year. It gives us a better team on paper than we had last year, but we're not worried about paper. We have to start over, forget all about 2005, and do the same things again that made us a good team last year.

If you talked to me in April, as a matter of fact if you told me in the winter meeting or when we left camp this team would have 90 wins and be fighting in the pennant race, I will take that. Obviously our lead has shrunk real quick. Obviously we are not playing real good and the team behind us is playing extremely well.

He swings the bat real good at the right moment, especially when we need it.

He's ridiculous. You hit a ball through the wind like he did. He has a really good chance to have a great year.

It was one lady and six guys sitting next to me, and we were just playing around all game. And (if) they take it the wrong way, that's fine. I know the last couple of days I slept pretty good about it because I don't have anything in my conscience to make me feel guilty about it.

It was a big game. It's a great feeling to be this close, but it's not over 'til it's over. It will be a battle tomorrow, but you don't worry about it, you get a good night's sleep and see what happens.

Are we missing Scotty? Yes. Are we losing because Scott's not here? I don't think so. We're losing because we're not playing good baseball.

Are we playing good baseball? Yes, ... How long are we going to play like this? We'll do it as long as we can. I guarantee one thing: We're going to show up every day and play the same kind of baseball.

Sometimes when you win the World Series you clean the house and get a new team. It's not easy, no matter what you do. (General manager) Kenny Williams has given us a good shot to repeat.

All year we play pretty good baseball. Cleveland has played outstanding. We can't control that. Now, we have a chance to control that.

The guy pitches two good games and all of a sudden he's Cy Young,

A good thing happened to us. I think being here for so many years and the fans in Chicago waited so long and had so much patience and are still there for us ... I don't know how many years, 80 or whatever it is ... good thing we did it.

It was a tough decision for the umpires, one out away from an official game. But it would have taken too long to get the field in shape. It's a good thing we scored early.

It shows you how good of a pitcher he was. He got in all that trouble, but baseball kept bringing him back.

This kid's been great, ... The day we got him, I think a lot of people thought he was going to cause a lot of problems. The only thing A.J.'s brought here is good things. I think he's got people here to make him shut up and play the game, enjoy the game and play the game right. A lot of people misunderstand this kid. If we think he's doing things he shouldn't be, we let him know.

I can see this kid having a pretty good year. That's why we got him. He could carry this team for a little while.

If I think I'm good, I don't care about that stuff. If he's not with the Cubs, he'll be with someone else. He's already proved to a lot of people in baseball that he's a good manager. That's it, he's a good manager.

He's my true leader, ... When I got this job and people say he was good in the clubhouse, he was different then, he's a selfish player. But I got this job for two years and he's the best thing I have.

He approached me today, and I think it is a good thing for him and myself.