Guillen: Don Cooper is Kenny Williams' "Bitch"

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 18, 2011 2:30PM

You'd think, now that Ozzie Guillen has his money and a new manager job in Miami, he'd be content to move on. Anyone who watched Guillen during his eight seasons at 35th and Shields knows otherwise.

Guillen spoke about the White Sox again with his media mouthpiece, Sun-Times sports columnist Joe Cowley, yesterday. (Cowley is the first to say he's "owned" the Guillen/Kenny Williams story from the beginning. Now he's beating it like a dead horse.) Guillen appears to be moving on in the column, but he also showed another character trait with which White Sox fans became familiar - loyalty to his staff.

Regarding the re-signing of pitching coach Don Cooper and how he negotiated the contract away from Guillen, Ozzie said, "We all knew Coop was Kenny’s bitch." Ozzie also rejected reports that he told Williams to "let them sweat" when it came to re-signing his coaching staff.

“I told [the Sox] I want to keep my coaching staff, and I never lied to the media. I talked to Jerry Reinsdorf maybe five times [about extending the coaches’ contracts over the years]. The reason I was so comfortable with the Sox was the coaches. Let them sweat it out? Coop was Kenny’s guy, and my staff knew that. We all know what he really is.’’

Some who've watched the team the past couple of years could also make the case that Cooper, while being "Kenny's guy" in Guillen's eyes, was also the one coach who was indispensable for his work with the pitching staff. It's also worth noting, since Cowley hasn't, the Sox also retained Harold Baines from Guillen's staff.

Guillen did say he thought the hiring of Robin Ventura was a good decision. "He’s different than me, but in my opinion, the Sox picked the right guy," he said. Reports are swirling that Jim Thome may soon be joining the Sox' staff, as well.