Ozzie Promises Changes....Again

In yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times, Greg Couch wrote a column about how the White Sox and Ozzie Guillen seem to thrive on controversy and friction. Whether it's something Ozzie says or does that causes problems with the media, or players on his team, it just seems like when things are going crazy with this team they play well.

So hopefully Ozzie's latest rant will help the Sox start another eight-game win streak. After the Sox struggled to score runs all weekend in Tampa, Ozzie couldn't hold the frustration in any longer, and went off on his team as he's prone to do.

"Just be ready because I expect movement Tuesday," Guillen said after the Sox went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position in a loss capped by Gabe Gross' walk-off home run off Matt Thornton on an 0-2 count in the bottom of the 10th inning. "I expect (general manager) Kenny Williams to do something Tuesday, and if we don't do anything Tuesday, there are going to be a lot of lineup changes. That's all I'm going to say about the offense."

But Guillen wasn't finished after the Sox dropped the final three games of the series to the Rays, managing just four runs in the three games.

"It can be me. It can be (hitting coach) Greg Walker. It can be the players. It could be anybody," he said. "I'm sick and tired to watch this thing for a year and a half. I'm not protecting anybody anymore. [Bleep] it. If they can't get it done, Kenny should find someone to get it done."

Okay, so that wasn't that great of a rant. Frankly, Ozzie spoils us with these things, but there's nothing new in this one. He demands change, says he's going to do something about it, and then even throws in another "I might get fired." Ozzie's been on the verge of getting fired 150 times in the last two years by his count.

At most I'd say that this rant is worth a four or five-game win streak max. Wait a minute, I think I just found another five wins we can tack on to that.

After Kenny Williams heard Ozzie's lastest comments, he had this to say.

"It's just not a good idea to throw your boss under the bus, especially when that boss has had your back as much as I have had his," Williams wrote in an e-mail. "I expect this team, if the leadership remains positive and the players stick together and continue to play hard, it will be a fun summer.

"The offense will begin to produce when collectively they say the hell with all the theories, stay loose, pick the pitch you want to hit and hit it hard. It will be nice to see them lighten up and have some fun."

Wow. We've seen it all over the last five years, but never once during one of Ozzie's tirades has Kenny Williams not supported him. When he called Mariotti a fag, Kenny said it was wrong, but since he agreed he didn't do much about it. Blow up dolls in the clubhouse? Kenny had to stifle laughter as he offered an "apology" for it.

Now Kenny is angry that Ozzie is throwing him under the bus. Oh man, we're so going to have a Cubs-White Sox World Series this year.

People Are Stupid

The other day I was talking to Panger, and somewhere in our conversation we began discussing the media. She said that while religion used to be the "opiate of the masses," it's been replaced today by mass media (television, the internet, etc.).

She's right.

I went to ESPN after getting home on Wednesday night just to see what I missed, and saw the newest poll they'd placed on the site.

The question: "Who is the Worst Super Bowl Quarterback of All Time?"

The choices:

• Trent Dilfer
• Tony Eason
• Vince Ferragamo
• Rex Grossman
• David Woodley

You'll never guess who was leading the poll.

That's right, Rex Grossman.

What in the hell is wrong with you people!?

Rex Grossman isn't even the worst Bears quarterback in Super Bowl history, and they've only had two!!

Don't believe me? Let's look at the numbers. Here's the Punky QB known as McMahon's numbers from 1985:

178/313 56.9% 2,392 yards 15 TD 11 INT

Here's the Sex Cannon's numbers this season:

262/480 54.6% 3,193 yards 23 TD 20 INT

They're oddly similar. Rex threw for 801 more yards, and eight more touchdowns. His completion percentage was worse, and he threw more interceptions, but last I checked Rexy doesn't have Walter Payton in his backfield.

Also, there were quite a few games this season in which Rex won the game on his own, despite the defense. McMahon only won one game on his own in 85, against the Vikings in the Metrodome. A game he didn't even start. The defense on the '85 team was so good that Steve Fuller won games as the quarterback!!

Don't even get me started on the QB's Rex is considered worse than. Vince Ferragamo? David Woodley? Who the hell is David Woodley!? I don't even know. I had to look him up.

In 9 games for the Dolphins in 1982, Woodley threw for 1,080 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 8 interceptions. Average that out over a 16 game regular season and he'd finish with 1,920 yards, 9 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions.

Oh yeah, he's way better than Rex Grossman. Rex can't even carry his jock.

Tony Eason is worse than Grossman too. In 1985, before getting shellacked by the Bears, Eason had a regular season in which he threw 2,156 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions.

I know Rex is inconsistent. Trust me, he drives me crazy at times, but this is all just an overreaction to the insane amount of media coverage we have these days.

It's the ESPNs of the world spending 8 hours a day talking about how Rex sucks.

It's the Chicago newspapers, so accustomed to seeing crappy quarterbacks in this town that they aren't even sure what a good quarterback looks like, and just assume that Grossman sucks.

It's the bloggers like yours truly who rip on Rex at will. (Though I'd say Foul Balls been pretty fair to Grossman.)

People only see what they choose to, and all anybody looks at are Rex's bad games since that's what the media chooses to focus on.

They ignore his good games. Nobody looks at his performance against Detroit in Week 2 when he threw for 289 yards and four touchdowns, without an interception.

We glance over the game in Week 5 against Buffalo when Rex threw for 182 yards and 2 touchdowns in the first half en route to a 40-0 score at halftime. Rex did nothing but hand off in the second half.

They ignore his the Week 8 game against San Francisco where he threw for 3 touchdowns and 252 yards.

There was Week 10 in New York (246 yards, 3 touchdowns), Week 14 in St. Louis (200 yards, 2 touchdowns) and Week 15 against Tampa (339 yards, 2 touchdowns).

In those six games I mentioned, Rex threw 16 touchdowns, and 1 interception. It's just the fact that when Rex has a bad day, it's awful.

A quarterback who has gone 15-3 this season, and 20-8 in his career, is the worst quarterback in the history of the Super Bowl.

Give me a damn break.