INDIANAPOLIS—One cool thing about the Winter Meetings is the daily little thing each manager does with the press. For some guys it's the first (and only) chance they get to catch a glimpse at someone like Don Wakamatsu or Dave Trembley and hear what they have to say.
Other times, it's nothing more than another mass media session for the popular managers of the big-market teams. For instance, this afternoon, Terry Francona of the Red Sox and Ozzie
Guillen from the White Sox held they media sessions in front of pretty large crowds. Then again, Ozzie and Tito usually gather larger than average crowds simply because they are so quotable. In the case of Ozzie Guillen sometimes he's so quotable he can't be quoted because of his choice in different types of words he likes to use.
It makes me wonder if Ozzie learned English from listening to Redd Foxx records when he came to the U.S. from Venezuela.
Nevertheless, today Francona relived the end of the 2009 season and how even though the Red Sox won 95 games, they weren't quite good enough.
"Everybody remembers how you finish," Francona said, acknowledging that despite all those wins, the Red Sox didn't even challenge the Yankees in the AL East.
With World Series title No. 27 in the bag, the secret to the Yankees success is pretty simple to hear Francona describe it.
"They have a lot of money and they have a lot of smart people running things," he said.
Lethal combo.
Meanwhile, across the ballroom here in the Indy Downtown Marriott, Guillen talked about his club, specifically how veteran Andruw Jones fits in.
Jones, of course, has been THE center fielder in the Majors over the last decade. However, now that he going into his 15th season in the league and closing in on his 33rd birthday, Jones will have to get used to playing left field for the White Sox, because, as Guillen said, "Right now he doesn't have a choice."
Five-year veteran Alex Rios is Guillen's choice to play centerfield in front of Jones.
"Rios is a better center fielder," Guillen said. "Ten years ago, Andruw Jones was the best center fielder on Earth."
He's still pretty good, but not good enough for the South Side of Chicago.
As far as the Phillies go, Charlie Manuel did not make the trip to Indy with the approximately 30 other members of the team's traveling party. Because the season lasted into the first week of November, Manuel was excused. Last year in Las Vegas, as some remember, Manuel spent the entire week in his room at the Bellagio ridden with the flu. Until the last day of the winter meetings Charlie only surfaced to sign his contract extension before going back to bed.
This year he's probably playing a little golf in Florida.