Robin Ventura Named White Sox Manager

[southsider2k5]

BSLillibridge Brent Lillibridge

Looking Forward to Ventura leading us to a great 2012 and beyond. I wonder what our slogan will be this year? Any ideas?

 

[BigSqwert]

"White Sox baseball: At least we're not the Cubs"

[flavum]

White Sox Baseball: We're Not Rebuilding. We're Retooling.

 

 

[southsider2k5]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/whitesox/

 

Robin Ventura, who was formally introduced as the 39th manager of the White Sox on Tuesday, is exactly as you see him.

 

Down to earth, centered and steady. And not a single word bleeped out of your evening sportscast.

 

No bleeps, no tweets, and no looks of angst on the White Sox public relations staff.

 

As for his style of managing, no one knows because Ventura has not managed or coached at any level. What his players can expect from the two-time all-star, Ventura said, is a straight-forward and honest dude.

 

"Just being truthful, being upfront, honest and fair, really," Ventura said. "I think everybody's accountable and from being a player, guys like that. Guys know what to expect, they like that. As a manager, I don't change day-to-day, and I think that'd be part of the draw. I'm pretty much the same every day, and they'll know what to expect.''

 

Asked if he has the cure for what ailed Adam Dunn, Alex Rios and Gordon Beckham during their poor 2011 seasons, Ventura said knows what the the first step is. And they're all taking it now.

 

"Well, I think for right now they need a break," Ventura said. "The mental grind of baseball is probably the toughest of of any sport because it's daily. It's daunting, especially if you get yourself in a hole. I don't think it's anything I can do right away.

 

"For them, you come to spring training and feel fresh. You feel different as a player every year as a player when you go to spring training. There's no guarantee that any guy on our team is going to have a better or worse year than last year."

 

Ventura was an off-the-radar pick by general manager Ken Williams, who was thinking outside the box all the way. He revealed Tuesday that he thought about asking Paul Konerko to be a player-manager. But that's as far as it went.

 

Williams said the rest of Ventura's coaching staff will be announced soon. He also said that first-base coach Harold Baines will get more involved with hitters, particularly on the mental side.

 

Here are exerpts of what Ventura had to say Tuesday.

 

On whether he talked to Sox players: : "I talked to Paul and then have done a little phone tag with a couple of other ones. That will eventually happen but it's just nice to get in contact with them and just talk to them.

 

On the best piece of advice he received since hired:

 

"The best piece of advice is to be yourself. That's going to be pretty simple for me."

 

On what he's learned from former managers:

 

"For me, I think you take something from every guy you play with, every guy that coached you and managed you. I think everybody has that. I've played for a lot of great managers and I plan on - I don't know if it's stealing - but it's using a lot of their styles and philosophies and I think that makes me confident."

 

On being a good cop/bad cop:

 

"Just being truthful, being upfront, honest and fair, really. I think everybody's accountable and as being a player, guys like that. Guys know what to expect, they like that. As a manager I don't change day to day and I think that'd be part of the draw. I'm pretty much the same every day and they'll know what to expect.

 

On what he can do to fix Dunn, Rios and Beckham:

 

"Well I think for right now they need a break. The mental grind of baseball is probably the toughest out of any sport because it's daily, it's daunting especially if you get yourself in a hole. I don't think it's anything I can do right away. For them, you come to Spring Training and feel fresh. You feel different as a player every year as a player when you go to spring training. There's no guarantee that any guy on our team is going to have a better or worse year than last year. We're hoping everybody has a great year and that's what we're counting on."

 

On Williams "interviewing" him as a player:

 

"As a player, it's hard to sit there and think you're going to be a manager back when you're five years in the league.

 

"Granted I don't have that coaching or managerial experience officially but I think later in my career that was something that was evident that I felt I could do it and I felt confident that I could do it.''

 

On being an instructing manager:

 

"I would instruct on things that I'm stronger at. Obviously when we fill the staff there's going to be guys that are stronger in certain areas of the game and I'm going to let them do that.

 

"I think third base and maybe a little bit of second. Probably with Brent more than anyone else if he needs it. He had a great end of the year and we're going to have to play that by ear. But I think everybody instructs in one way or the other and we're just going to have wait and see in spring how that all comes out.''

 

On handling different personalities:

 

"Well I played for a lot of different personalities and got along with a lot of different people and become friends with a lot of people from the outside they look at my personality andtheir personality and not think that we would get along. It's finding a way to have common ground. Personalities are great on teams. As long as they're a good teammate, we're going to get along great as long as they're going toward a common goal. When it's about yourself there's going to be times for discussion.''

[LittleHurt05]

You're really overplaying the hatred angle. Even the biggest Ozzie haters around will be indifferent to him within a matter of months if not weeks. All is forgotten with time.

 

One major difference is that people "hate" Ozzie because he talked s*** about the fans, players, media, anyone he could, while his sons did the same thing. I don't think much of the true "hate" is due to his passion for the bunt or not dropping Adam Dunn down in the lineup.

[Cali]

White Sox Baseball: I

[JohnCangelosi]

I supported the Robin decision, but come on coach...act like you want the job! He answered Chuck Garfein's question about what did KW see in him to make him the manager with the following quote "I don't know Chuck".

It reminds me of a scene in the movie "U-571"

 

 

"The skipper ALWAYS knows whether he does or not". Robin could learn something from this.

[chw42]

So Kenny actually thought about making Paulie a player-manager? The fact that he even thought that is ridiculous.

[soxsoxsoxsox]

I supported the Robin decision, but come on coach...act like you want the job! He answered Chuck Garfein's question about what did KW see in him to make him the manager with the following quote "I don't know Chuck".

 

ya it just seemed like hey you want the job? sure why not. didn't take away any passion, fire, etc from that press conference.

[Steve9347]

ya it just seemed like hey you want the job? sure why not. didn't take away any passion, fire, etc from that press conference.

It sounded more like "Sure, why not? As long as it doesn't interfere with anything that I actually care about in my life."

[flavum]

One thing you can take away from his interviews, his middle name should be "obviously".

[justBLAZE]

One thing you can take away from his interviews, his middle name should be "obviously".

 

Captain Obvious! ?

[greg775]

I supported the Robin decision, but come on coach...act like you want the job! He answered Chuck Garfein's question about what did KW see in him to make him the manager with the following quote "I don't know Chuck".

 

Get used to it. You anti Ozzies should be thrilled because as expected, Sox hired polar opposite of Ozzie.

Ventura is going to say NOTHING of interest during his tenure.

You guys got what you wanted. Get used to it. Robin will say nothing of interest, absolutely nothing. EVER.

That's Robin Ventura, not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

Hopefully he's a good manager. He is not a good interview. In fact, he's a horrible interview which should please those who take sports SOOOO seriously. I thought Ozzie was funny as s*** and it added to my experience for sure.

Edited October 12, 2011 by greg775

[southsider2k5]

Get used to it. You anti Ozzies should be thrilled because as expected, Sox hired polar opposite of Ozzie.

Ventura is going to say NOTHING of interest during his tenure.

You guys got what you wanted. Get used to it. Robin will say nothing of interest, absolutely nothing. EVER.

That's Robin Ventura, not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

Hopefully he's a good manager. He is not a good interview. In fact, he's a horrible interview which should please those who take sports SOOOO seriously. I thought Ozzie was funny as s*** and it added to my experience for sure.

 

Who gives a f*** if he is a good interview? Seriously, that is just a horrible thing to worry about for a manager.

[Quin]

Who gives a f*** if he is a good interview? Seriously, that is just a horrible thing to worry about for a manager.

 

[Marty34]

Hopefully he's a good manager. He is not a good interview. In fact, he's a horrible interview which should please those who take sports SOOOO seriously. I thought Ozzie was funny as s*** and it added to my experience for sure.

 

I don't think he's a horrible interview at all. It's just hard to provide answers for the real reason he was hired without throwing Guillen under the bus. I think it's clear in reading everything that's been written that Ventura was hired by chairman Reinsdorf first and foremost to get a dysfunctional clubhouse in order and provide leadership. Everyone involved in the hiring, Ventura especially, has to dance around that or risk Guillen going off.

 

 

 

[greg775]

Who gives a f*** if he is a good interview? Seriously, that is just a horrible thing to worry about for a manager.

 

I wasn't the one who made a post concerned about one of his boring answers today. I was responding to it.

I prefer funny showmen like Ozzie, but Ventura deserves our support even if he is very very very bland.

[TheBlackSox8]

Who gives a f*** if he is a good interview? Seriously, that is just a horrible thing to worry about for a manager.

I really don't know one single person that gives a s*** how good an interviewer a manager is. And it's really only Sox fans that get to see interviews from Ventura anyway.....I can't say I've seen too many interviews of other teams managers.... or ever had an opinion on how they gave an interview.

[Rowand44]

I wasn't the one who made a post concerned about one of his boring answers today. I was responding to it.

I prefer funny showmen like Ozzie, but Ventura deserves our support even if he is very very very bland.

Ay, NOBODY is complaining about him being a boring interview.

[bigruss]

Ay, NOBODY is complaining about him being a boring interview.

This was all brought up by Greg posting how he wants to buy his manager a beer, and also posting that he loves Ozzie because he's at least entertaining.

[southsider2k5]

I wasn't the one who made a post concerned about one of his boring answers today. I was responding to it.

I prefer funny showmen like Ozzie, but Ventura deserves our support even if he is very very very bland.

 

I couldn't care less about the managers personality. I care about him getting the team to win. Period, end of story.

[hogan873]

I wasn't the one who made a post concerned about one of his boring answers today. I was responding to it.

I prefer funny showmen like Ozzie, but Ventura deserves our support even if he is very very very bland.

Come on, enough with this.

 

But you're right that Ventura deserves our support. And like I said before: Bland winning manager > Funny losing manager

[southsider2k5]

http://www.csnchicago.com/blog/sox-drawer/...&feedID=661

 

Sox Drawer: Robin ready to rock

October 11, 2011, 9:50 pm

 

Frank Thomas used to feel the wrath of Robin Ventura when he felt teammates weren't giving 100 percent to the team. (AP)

One-on-one with Ventura

 

CSN's Chuck Garfien goes one-on-one with new White Sox manager Robin Ventura - 10/10

 

 

By now you’ve likely heard the criticisms of Robin Ventura managing the Chicago White Sox. He’s heard them too. They’re tough to ignore.

 

One, he’s never managed. Two, he’s never even coached.

 

Well, that’s not entirely true. Two years ago, Ventura actually was a coach---at the White Sox Fantasy Baseball Camp in Glendale, Arizona.

 

People say that Ventura doesn’t have a sharp tongue like Ozzie Guillen? Here’s what Robin said when I asked him about his rag-tag team of seniors who paid thousands of dollars to play in the camp, but couldn’t win a game.

 

“We were terrible. We were not just no good. We were terrible,” he said.

 

So if Ventura couldn’t inspire a collection of athletically challenged baseball players between the ages of 40 and 70, what makes him think he can suddenly lead a real major league team, and into the playoffs no less?

 

“Well for one, (the fantasy campers) couldn’t catch. They couldn’t catch or even hit, so I was at a disadvantage from the start,” Ventura said laughing. “Now I feel like I have a foot in the right direction with the squad that we have here.”

 

But let’s not kid ourselves. That foot has an extremely large shoe to fill.

 

He’s taking over for Guillen, who might be long gone in Miami, but his voice is still echoing at U-S Cellular Field. His words were so memorable, they’re permanently embedded in the rafters.

 

Guillen also won a World Series title for the White Sox, the only manager alive who can say that.

 

But while they are both vastly different on the surface, Ventura and Guillen are almost twins when it comes to their approaches to the game. They’re cut from the same cloth, brought up in a White Sox organization that stressed the importance of playing the game one way--the right way.

 

“There are parts of baseball that (Ozzie and I) both had instilled in us early in our careers that are very similar in the way we do things here,” Ventura said in an interview following his Tuesday press conference. “We do appreciate guys who play hard and we expect that. There’s no other way around it.”

 

Ventura might have the look of a laid back surfer who would prefer to hang 10 than to play nine, but inside that belly of his is a competitive fire that burns, and has been known to boil. Just ask some of his former teammates, like Frank Thomas, who not only heard but felt the wrath of Ventura when he believed they weren’t giving 100 percent of themselves to the team.

 

“I took it personally when guys didn’t come out and do what they were supposed to, or back a teammate or play hard as they’re supposed to,” Ventura said. “And that’s something that our team is going to understand about me. I’m going to come every day with the same attitude, the same personality. What’s expected is not going to be a shock.”

 

Speaking to reporters last week, Williams said that he wants Ventura to have his own voice, and to challenge the Sox GM whenever he feels necessary.

 

One day into the job, does Ventura have the comfort level to stand up to his boss when conflict arrives?

 

“You’re going to have disagreements,” Ventura said. “It may not be like the same as the ones he had before(with Guillen). But I have beliefs just like anybody else. Our staff is going to have beliefs. And that’s going to be something that if I don’t agree with something he’s doing, I’m going to tell him that. It doesn’t mean I’m going to scream and yell, but he’s going to understand that I don’t agree with what’s going on.”

 

The Detroit Tigers beat the White Sox by 16 games to win the Central Division. But that gap is nothing compared to the difference in experience between the two skippers. Jim Leyland has managed 1,716 games in his career, Ventura 0.

 

So when the fans and media criticize Ventura as being a managing neophite who’s in over his head, he understands where they’re coming from.

 

“I get it. I totally get it,” Ventura said about his lack of coaching experience. “But just because they say it, doesn’t mean it’s true.”

 

Just ask anyone who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2003 and 2004, Ventura’s last two seasons as a player in the big leagues. His teammates had a special nickname for him.

 

What was it?

 

“It was ploach.”

 

Which meant?

 

“Player-coach,” Ventura said modestly. “I don’t know if it was about my age. I was at the end of my career. I was the oldest guy on the team, but it stuck early in spring training and I had it for the whole year.”

 

At the time, Ventura might not have seen himself as a manager, but everyone else did.

 

“Of all the players I played with, he would be my number-one choice to manage a team,” tweeted former Dodger teammate Shawn Green soon after Ventura was hired.

 

As for the perception that Ventura had to be talked into the job, first, that didn’t happen and second, who in their right mind would sign up to be the White Sox new manager with all the pressure of replacing Guillen, dealing with the media pressure and taking over a struggling team if they weren’t 100 percent certain that they wanted the job, and felt deep down that they could succeed?

 

“It wasn’t like, ‘Hey let’s just take a shot at it,’ because no organization is going to go into a season and waste one full year on a guy who says, ‘Well, let’s see how it goes,’” said Ventura. “That’s not how I’m going into this. I’m going to work hard until I get to spring training having everything I need to have ready to go.”

 

For the last 20 years, it seems like wherever Ventura goes he’s reminded of the infamous night when he charged the mound against Nolan Ryan and received a round of noogies to the head from the Hall of Fame pitcher. Coincidentally, Ventura will make his managerial debut next season in Texas, where Ryan is now the team’s president.

 

“It’s going to be great,” Ventura said, rolling his eyes. “I think there might have been 500-thousand people in the stadium when that happened because everyone says they were at the game.”

 

Among those in attendance was a teenage ballplayer dreaming of the big leagues.

 

“Paul Konerko was actually at that game,” Ventura said.

 

How about that little nugget?

 

Konerko was with a traveling baseball team that got to meet the White Sox third baseman before the game.

 

What did Ventura talk to them about?

 

“Sportsmanship.”

 

I guess you never know where life will take you. Ventura knows that....from experience.

[bmags]

“Well for one, (the fantasy campers) couldn’t catch. They couldn’t catch or even hit, so I was at a disadvantage from the start,” Ventura said laughing. “Now I feel like I have a foot in the right direction with the squad that we have here.”

 

Oh no, he didn't watch last season!

[BigSqwert]

Come on, enough with this.

 

He obviously isn't a big fan of winning baseball. He just likes to laugh at funny people.