Ken “Hawk” Harrelson won’t be at Rate Field tonight when the White Sox retire Ozzie Guillen’s No. 13, but the longtime broadcaster’s respect for Guillen comes through loud and clear anyway.
Harrelson, who turns 85 on Sept. 4 and said he is feeling good, had doctors’ appointments in Florida that he couldn’t move. Still, he made it plain during a Thursday evening phone conversation how much the night means to him.
“I’m so proud of Ozzie and I always have been,” Harrelson said. “Ozzie is a super guy, he really is. I love him almost like a son.”
Guillen will be celebrated onstage with Harold Baines, the Hall of Famer, White Sox icon and close friend of Guillen. Mark Buehrle and Paul Konerko, whose numbers 56 and 14 are already retired and who also have concourse statues in their honor, will be there too, as will A.J. Pierzynski, who is broadcasting tonight’s game against the Guardians for FOX and rounds out the dais.
The crowd will also include plenty of familiar names from Guillen’s White Sox years: Lance Johnson, Ron Karkovice, Mike Huff, Greg Walker, Roberto Hernandez, Ron Kittle, Bo Jackson, Jesse Crain, Brian Anderson, Cliff Politte, Neal Cotts, Jon Garland, Jose Contreras, Joe Crede and Scott Podsednik.
Some invited guests can’t make it, among them Harrelson, Jermaine Dye and Ken Williams. Williams was the general manager who made the aggressive call to hire Guillen as White Sox manager after the 2003 season.
What followed is the kind of history White Sox fans still know by heart.
“Very happy for [Guillen] and his family,” Williams texted from Italy, where he is on a family vacation that had been planned for some time. He would have been there otherwise.
Chris Getz, now the team’s general manager, knows Guillen from his time playing for him in 2008-09. Guillen was the one who told Getz in Spring Training of ’09 that he would be the starting second baseman, and Getz still keeps a photo of the two of them fist-bumping as the lineup was being introduced before the home opener against the Royals.
Guillen’s connection to the organization has stretched well beyond his years in uniform and in the dugout. He is also a regular pregame and postgame voice on CHSN with Chuck Garfien, where the two break down the highs, lows and head-scratchers of the White Sox.
Harrelson said he tries to catch that show whenever he can, and he didn’t hold back on what he thinks of it.
“It is the best postgame and pregame show I ever saw in sports,” Harrelson said, also pointing to Frank Thomas’ role in the show’s earlier version. “Ozzie has a great sense of humor, has a terrific mind and he’s not afraid of anything. He knows baseball as well as anybody, and I’ve been around a lot of people for a lot of years.”
Harrelson also noted how Guillen’s path started in Venezuela, where he came to the United States as a teenager and was soon joined by his wife, Ibis, without either of them knowing any English in their new country. Since then, they have built a life in the Chicago area, raised three sons and have four grandchildren.
On the field, Guillen’s White Sox résumé speaks for itself. He played for the club from 1985-97, made three All-Star teams and won the 1985 AL Rookie of the Year award. He often jokes about his offense, but he still finished with 1,608 hits and 163 stolen bases in Chicago.
As a manager from 2004-11, Guillen piled up 678 wins, which ties him with Tony La Russa for third all-time in White Sox history. And of course, there is the season that defines everything else: 2005, when the White Sox led from start to finish, went 11-1 in the postseason and brought home their first championship in 88 years.
“I’ll put it this way: I never saw a Sox manager who was a better manager than Ozzie,” Harrelson said. “He got his guys to bust their [butt].
And if they didn’t, he would jump all over their [butt]. He instills in people what I call the TWTW -- the will to win.”
Add in his broadcast work, which has earned local Chicago Emmy nominations, and Harrelson said the case is obvious: Guillen belongs in the small group of White Sox legends whose numbers are retired, and he should be the first manager in franchise history to get that honor.
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