Book Review: Ozzie’s School of Management

By Bill Jordan
Updated: May 25, 2012

If anyone who even casually follows the game of baseball was asked to name the most controversial manager of the past decade, there is little doubt that the first name out of their mouth would be current Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen.

In his new book, Ozzie’s School of Management: Lessons from the Dugout, the Clubhouse, and the Doghouse, author Rick Morrissey provides a unique look into a character who seems to always be in the spotlight. To many, Guillen may seem to be just a crazy man out to get some attention, and perhaps steal it from his team, but Morrissey finds out there is a method to most of the manager’s madness.

The author had an up close view of Guillen during his years with the White Sox as Morrissey was covering the team for the Chicago Sun Times. This gives him unique perspective on Guillen’s career from the time he was hired in 2003 through the team’s World Series win in 2005 and to his departure from Chicago after the 2011 season.

Guillen is a great example of someone whose unique and strange style is envied and considered to be the reason his team is winning when they are doing well and also the reason they are losing when they aren’t doing well.

Morrissey tells the story of a man who put players in a game on a gut feeling that it would make a difference where sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. Guillen is clearly not the typical manager as can be evidenced by the fact that he once took a pitcher out of a game simply because he told one of his sons that he would be able to see him on TV that day, and he knew a trip to the mound would secure that promise.

The author outlines the Ten Commandments of Ozzie as:

All Men are Created Equal, In Theory
Protect Your Employees from the Barbarians
Promote Serenity in the Workplace
Get Rid of the Clutter in Their Heads
Be Nurturing, No Matter How Much it Hurts
Find a Mentor
Don’t Confuse Team and Family
Play the Odds
Manage Up
It’s Better to Be the Matador Than the Bull (Usually)

Morrissey points a picture of a man who probably had the most trouble adhering to commandment number seven. Guillen is presented as an extremely loyal man whose loyalties often both help and hurt him. This is evidenced in a number of cases in the book, usually winding up to help the team in the long run, when the manager had stuck with a player out of loyalty for what they had done for him in the past. This also helped him with his relationships with players as well, and will have something to show for it for some time to come. Guillen is clearly painted throughout the book as someone who outsiders either love or hate, but most on the inside who have dealt with him professionally love him. If there is a player or coach who has worked with Guillen who has ended up not liking him, it is probably because that person did something Guillen completely did not respect.

A few of the topics covered in the book include:

The true story behind Guillen’s feud with White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams.
The close relationshio he has with his three sons, and the controversial tweets from his son Oney.
His not so found views of sabermetrics, meetings and any type of scouting report.
The idea that Guillen’s outspokenness hurts the chances of others who come from a Latino background in their hopes of landing a Big League managerial job.

The book came out nationwide on May 22 in hardcover. Although the book clearly does not cover much of the manager’s time with the Marlins, it does give the reader a good understanding of where that team may be headed.

Overall rating: 2.75/5