Oswaldo Guillen

Oswaldo Guillén (Ocumare del Tuy, Venezuela, January 20, 1964), also known as Ozzie Guillén in the United States, is a baseball player and coach. Venezuelan, shortstop for the Chicago White Sox between 1985 and 1997. He also played with the Baltimore Orioles, the Atlanta Braves and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays until his retirement in 2000.

Oswaldo Guillén grew up in the cities of Guarenas and Los Teques. He was trained by Ernesto Aparicio, uncle of the famous baseball player Luis Aparicio.

Career

As a player

He began his professional baseball career with the Tiburones de La Guaira, of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League in 1981.

Rookie of the year and defensive record on his team, in 1985, he participated in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 1988, 1990 and 1991, winning the 1990 gold glove and becoming the second Venezuelan to win it for the position of ss. in the american league

On April 12, 1992, he suffered an injury that disabled him for the rest of the season, but when he returned the following year, he could no longer show the great speed that characterized him when running the bases. In his professional Major League Baseball career, culminating in 2000, he amassed a salary of more than $23 million.

As a player, Guillén was known for his passion, speed and defensive skills; his passion for the game continues intact.

As a manager

After winning the World Series with the Chicago White Sox as first base coach, Guillén was named manager of the Chicago White Sox for the 2004 season, receiving a standing ovation in his first game as manager, on April 13 2004. With Guillén directing, his team finished with 83 wins and 79 losses.

On May 30, 2005, the White Sox extended Guillén's contract at a time when the team has an all-time record of 33 wins and 17 losses. The Chicago team exercised his contract option for 2006 and signed new options through the 2009 season. Under his leadership the White Sox won the 2005 American League Championship Series for the first time in 46 years, becoming the first manager Non-American to lead a team to the World Series and win it. Likewise, he was the manager for the American League in the 2006 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which they won 3-2.

He managed the White Sox until 2011, when he left the Chicago team to lead the new project of the Miami Marlins since 2012, who debuted their name, uniform and even a new stadium, Marlins Park, in addition to signing certain high-value free agent players, such as Dominican infielder José Reyes. However, and after a year in which he combined controversy, after some statements made about the former president of Cuba, Fidel Castro, which generated the rejection of the public opinion of Hispanics and especially Cuban exiles living in Miami (including Marlins Park, stadium of the Marlins, is located in the sector called "little Havana") and a team that obtained very irregular results, ends up being dismissed as coach at the end of the 2012 season.

Since then, he would assume as a commentator for the ESPN Sports television network for the transmission of Major League Baseball games.

In 2016, he was named the new manager of the Tiburones de La Guaira, a team with which he played his entire Venezuelan baseball career, of which he has repeatedly said that "he is a fan" and he has been seen wearing caps at events in the American Major Leagues.

Oswaldo Guillén is married to Ibis Cárdenas with whom he has three children.

In February 2019, he announced that he would not continue as Manager of Tiburones de La Guaira for the 2019-2020 season, through his Twitter social network account. where he thanked the fans of the team and that it was a great honor to be part of this coastal family.

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