I can understand where Oney Guillen is coming from.
Someone was taking shots at your dad, and you want to stick up for him. I totally get it.
This wasn't the way to do it.
The son of White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen took it upon himself to respond to an interview departed White Sox reliever Bobby Jenks gave in which he criticized Guillen's handling of the bullpen and his trust in Jenks.
Obviously, it would have been better if both of these former employees of the White Sox had just kept their mouths shut. But they didn't. So here we are looking at another public feud.
Just remember that neither Jenks or Oney Guillen work for the White Sox.
Imagine you have an acquaintance who happens to be a relative of a local celebrity. Someone pops off about said celebrity, you bring it up in conversation, the relative vents a while, and you move on.
In this day and age, a little venting amongst friends can circle the world pretty quickly.
Oney Guillen could have stomped around the beach for an hour or two telling his buddies what a punk he thought Jenks was, and the damage would have been minimal. However, we live in a world where the most mundane of acts gets posted to Facebook and Twitter as if they were national news.
If Oney wanted to vent, why not call his dad? Why not wait, oh, a half hour or so before posting?
Had he gone back and looked at his comments (which, unlike an interview, he easily could have done), he could have avoided a lot of scrutiny right now.
Oney appeared on several Chicago media outlets Wednesday to talk about the impact of his comments. He stressed that he was sticking up the team and did not seem to think that his comments would damage the reputation of the organization because he wasn't a team employee.
It seems that Oney reacted like a hot-headed fan and is now using the angle of defending the organization to defend his stance. If you feel a certain way about the team, fine. But don't hide behind the team to bring up the personal issues of Jenks.
I think that we can agree that Ozzie Guillen is quite capable of speaking for himself. He is capable of exchanging grievances with a host of former White Sox players. He didn't really need defending in a case of Jenks taking a departing shot.
The past history of Jenks and the White Sox is pretty clear: the team felt that the price tag on Jenks was too much in return for what they thought they were getting, so they walked away. Jenks commented on his sour grapes.
If team wanted to return fire and get nasty, they could have. They didn't need Oney Guillen to throw gasoline on the dying embers of the situation.
Oney Guillen should have taken some of his own advice. If he wanted to defend his dad, couldn't he have called Jenks himself before launching personal attacks in the most public of forums?
Venting is acceptable. Next time, do it away from your laptop.
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