Guillen hits back at former player
CHICAGO – The brushfire between manager Ozzie Guillen and former White Sox player Magglio Ordonez turned into a full-scale inferno on Thursday after Guillen took exception to his fellow Venezuelan calling him an “enemy.”
In a 5-minute interview that a member of the Detroit Tigers’ staff halted, Ordonez expressed his frustration over his latest injury but was blunter in discussing the lack of a relationship he had with Guillen from the time they briefly played together with the Sox at the end of the 1997 season.
“We never clicked, even when we played together,” Ordonez said. “I don’t consider him my friend. I have nothing to say. I don’t want to see him or talk to him. He’s my enemy.
“If he comes to me and wants to apologize, I wouldn’t accept it.”
Ordonez said later he didn’t have a problem with White Sox general manager Ken Williams and insisted it was Guillen who got involved with the decision to not re-sign him.
“I don’t talk bad about people when people are hurt,” said Ordonez, who is on the disabled list and will be examined Monday in Philadelphia by a hernia specialist. “I’m very straightforward. There are a lot of people who try to push you down and do the opposite, and not try to help you.”
Guillen became furious at any suggestion that he should apologize.
“Why do I have to apologize to him?” Guillen responded while sitting in his office chair and tapping his right foot frequently. Guillen said Ordonez started the verbal battle in February when he accused him of forcing him to play last season with a left knee injury that limited him to 52 games and convinced the White Sox not to re-sign him after they had offered him a multiyear deal last April.
“Why would I get involved with (contract negotiations)?” Guillen asked. “I don’t get involved with that.”
Ordonez later switched agents, from Tom Reich to Scott Boras, and landed a five-year, $75 million deal with Detroit.
The Tigers, however, can void the contract if Ordonez’s left knee causes him to spend at least 25 days on the disabled list or if he finishes the season on the DL.
That would cost Ordonez $63 million, but Guillen insinuated that messing with him would be a greater risk.
“I think Magglio is playing with fire,” Guillen said. “I’m not afraid of him. I have nothing to apologize (for). I have nothing to do with Magglio wearing the Detroit Tigers uniform.
“Every time when he played for me, he played good. But if he thinks I’m his enemy or I have something against him, it’s up to him.”
Guillen also felt betrayed because he claimed he told then-Sox GM Ron Schueler to put Ordonez on the 40-man roster after he was left off in the mid-1990s.
“I told Schueler this kid is better than you think,” Guillen said.
But apparently not as friendly. Ordonez met with a few White Sox players after Wednesday’s game, including disabled slugger Frank Thomas.
Before Thursday’s game, Guillen had an animated discussion on the field with friend and fellow Venezuelan Ugueth Urbina.
As for Ordonez, “he never was my friend because I don’t know him,” Guillen said. “If I think what I say I hurt him, I don’t (care).”