BALTIMORE Being a baseball manager isnt exactly like being a surgeon, but theres no doubt that both jobs have guts involved.
Ozzie Guillen showed his on Wednesday, refusing to drop Jim Thome in the batting order because of a gut feeling he had that the veteran DH would come out of his shell pretty soon.
Like in his first at-bat.
Thome ended a string of 43 consecutive at-bats without clearing the fence, as his third home run of the season gave the White Sox the early 3-0 lead. In his second at-bat, he doubled off the wall.
So while that .156 batting average going into the series with the Orioles might have had the South Side pushing the Get Thome Outta There button, Guillen made it known that he was staying the course.
If I’m going to make any movement in my lineup, I’ve got to talk to him personally, explain why I’m going to do it, Guillen said of Thome. It’s not fair for a Hall of Famer, all of the sudden you struggle at the plate but you’re giving good at-bats.
If Jimmy was somebody else, [Carlos] Quentin or a kid, I think I would worry about it. He knows what he’s doing.
You hear that Dionne Warwick?
