Suspend Ozzie

Ozzie Guillen was out of line for yelling at rookie pitcher Sean Tracey after Tracey failed to hit Hank Blalock in retaliation for A.J. Pierzynski being hit twice earlier in the game. Why should Tracey get ejected and take a suspension for hitting Blalock? The White Sox were down 6-0, en route to an 8-0 loss. Guillen is full of shit when he claims he didn't want Tracey in the game to face Blalock. Obviously, he wanted the rookie to hit Blalock. You don't worry about situations when you are down 6-0 late in the game. When you are getting your butt handed to you, you take your lumps, use your second-tier relievers and try to get through the game. If Guillen didn't want the rookie in that situation, and it was his fault for having him out there to face Blalock, he would have congratulated him after he got Blalock out. He definitely wouldn't have berated him in the dugout after he removed him from the game, or demoted him after the game. Usually, getting players out is a good thing!

If Guillen is going to punish guys for not following stupid directions, the White Sox players will either get fed up with Guillen very quickly and/or do what they are told. Baseball needs to take a hard look at this. The next time a White Sox pitcher retaliates, it's hard to blame them. I wouldn't want to be demoted. So, the pitcher should be held accountable, but Guillen should be seen as the ringleader. Thus, the hammer should be dropped on him by the commish's office. Suspend Guillen, let him know that this sort of behavior will not be tolerated. It's possible that Padilla just happened to hit Pierzynski twice on accident. Do the White Sox need to be retaliating? If it was a close game, would Ozzie have wanted Tracey to throw at Blalock? It's akin to a hockey team throwing their goons out on the ice in the 3rd period of a lopsided loss to try to inflict damage on the other team. Is anyone in support of that?