A recent Immaculate Grid asked participants to name a Chicago White Sox player who had played at least one game at shortstop. The number one answer was not Jacob Amaya, the current incumbent, or Paul DeJong, last year’s primary shortstop. It wasn’t Tim Anderson, the 2019 batting champ and first round draft pick who occupied the middle infield position the last time the Sox were any good. The first name coming to mind when thinking of shortstops and Sox wasn’t even Hall of Famers Luke Appling or Luis Aparicio.
My answer to this question was Aparicio, who had won Rookie of the Year honors and led the American League in stolen bases every single year of his White Sox tenure (plus the next couple seasons in Baltimore). The Venezuelan shortstop was elected to Cooperstown in 1984, all but ensuring the likelihood of his name being the first one mentioned as the definitive shortstop of Southsider history.
Instead of the ’56 Rookie of the Year shortstop from Maracaibo, by far the most popular answer was the ’85 Rookie of the Year hailing from Ocumare del Tuy. Perhaps Aparacio having been born in the most lightning-prone spot on Earth gave Sox fans the hope of lightning striking twice. Both were known for exceptional defense and attempting to swipe an extra base at every opportunity. They even finished their careers with batting averages just a few points apart.
Here’s what I find so interesting about the narrative of Guillen’s career. He was initially seen as Aparicio’s Southside heir, starting nearly every ChiSox game for 7 seasons, nabbing multiple All-Star nods and a Gold Glove. An early 1992 collision with Tim Raines wrecked Guillen’s right knee, shutting down his season and giving most discussions of his career a “before” and “after” point of reference. Discussions of the latter half mention his slowing down and his numbers tailing off at the plate.
Here’s the weird part: I don’t see much of that in the numbers.
| Status | G | .AVG | .SLG | .OBP | .wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Injury | 1,095 | .266 | .333 | .287 | .276 |
| Post-Injury | 898 | .261 | .346 | .287 | .280 |
55% of Guillen’s career took place with two intact knees with the remaining 45% testing the strength of makeshift bracing and medical tape. His batting average stayed fairly stable for a guy that was described by sportswriters as no longer able to hit. In fact, his slugging picked up by 13 points after the injury. Guillen’s on base percentage remained unchanged (and uninspiring) at .287 with fans seldom witnessing him draw a walk. His stolen base totals dropped precipitously, falling from a total of 136 pre-injury to just 33 in the 8 seasons that followed. Still, this wasn’t a total loss as Guillen’s success rate at swiping bags was barely over 60% even before his knee gave out. Those attempts at taking extra bases had likely hurt Chicago more than helped.
Fresh off the injured list in the 1993 season, he appears with a prominent knee brace on his Topps Finest baseball card. He looks a bit labored getting out of the batter’s box, but I guess that had always been the case. Still, you can’t argue with the fact that 25 years after he left the lineup he is still in the White Sox all time top 10 hits leaders.
The last few dozen refractors I wrote about were all acquired from a collector breaking up complete set. After recovering from those purchases and selling off unneeded cards, some time later I was once again seeking the remaining cards “in the wild.” This Ozzie Guillen refractor is my first wild caught find since that very helpful breakup. I had seen it for years in the online inventory of a seller that I frequented in the early days of working on the set and finally pulled the trigger with just 10 more cards left to cross off the checklist.
Guillen was the manager of the White Sox from 2004-2011 and oversaw the club’s first World Series championship (2005) since Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other Black Sox were on the roster. In a bit of a twist, Guillen’s final year of managing in MLB saw him take part in an attempt to help a player many were comparing to Moonlight Graham.
While Guillen was steering the 2005 Sox towards the World Series, the Chicago Cubs were stuck in the middle ranks of the NL Central. The team called up AA-prospect Adam Greenberg for a June game against the Miami Marlins. Greenberg took his place in the batter’s box and promptly had his skull fractured by the first pitch he saw.
The next six seasons saw him struggle with vertigo and other head trauma issues, limiting his ability to play baseball at his prior skill level. In 2012 Guillen was named manager of the Marlins, and in time for the next to last game of the season Greenberg was signed to the team. Greenberg, who had once been a Major Leaguer but appeared doomed to never get an official at-bat, was called upon by Guillen to pinch hit in the sixth inning. Greenberg struck out against Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey and soon retired from the game.
Even if the end result would have been the same all those years earlier, guys with an injury history appreciate having the ability to keep at the game.
Fun Fact: That 2005 World Series that Guillen managed was the only one in which a future US President (Obama) and a future Catholic Pope (Leo XIV) were both in attendance.
