Robin Ventura, Ozzie Guillen are more alike than you might think

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CHICAGO - MAY 12: (FILE PHOTO) Manager Ozzie Guillen #13 (R) of the Chicago White Sox shares a laugh with former teammate and retired MLB player Robin Ventura after Ventura threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game against the Baltimore Orioles on May 12, 2005 at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago White Sox announced that Ventura has been named as the new White Sox manager on October 6, 2011. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) R:\Merlin\Getty_Photos\52815914.jpg

Updated: March 2, 2012 8:17AM

Among all the autograph lines, team seminars and guarded optimism, one of former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen’s biggest fans found the energy to throw on a sweater and drag himself to SoxFest last weekend.

All three days of it.

He talked about the good times — and the bad ones — he had watching Guillen from afar. He was realistic enough to know it was time for the Sox and Guillen to part ways, but he knows what he’ll miss most about the flammable Miami Marlins skipper.

‘‘I was as big a fan as anyone when it came to listening to his press conferences,’’ he said with a hint of disappointment about the circus that left town.

Then the Ozzie admirer stated the obvious.

‘‘Mine aren’t going to be that way,’’ Robin Ventura said matter-of-factly.

No, they won’t. And they won’t be expected to. They probably will be quite the opposite: a lot of shrugging of the shoulders, a lot of dry humor, a lot fewer f-bombs.

They might be funny at times, but they’ll be Bill Cosby funny. Clean, wholesome. They won’t be the Chris Rock-style bleepity-bleep that went on under Guillen.

‘Grew up that same way’

But while the news conferences might become wake-me-up-when-it’s-over material, Ventura and Guillen are a lot more similar than many would think. They went to the same baseball school; they just had lockers in different parts of the building.

‘‘He and I came up at the same time, learned from the same people, so we have that bond and that same thing as far as being with the White Sox,’’ Ventura said. ‘‘Our personalities are the same more than you would think; we just go about things differently. The baseball part .  .  . we kind of grew up that same way.’’

The 1993-94 Sox teams served as examples to both men on what to look for in a winner. Basically, it was the same formula that brought the Sox a World Series title in 2005: speed at the top of the lineup, some power in the middle and a starting rotation that could be dominant on any given night.

It’s not rocket science. Unfortunately, it’s not what Ventura will have to work with or what Guillen had to work with in his last four seasons with the Sox.

Guillen said last week there was a push to blow up the Sox’ roster after the 2007 season and again after their short-lived playoff run in 2008. Most scouts and suits in the front office wanted to rebuild, but general manager Ken Williams vetoed it both times.

Different voice

So what has Ventura inherited because of those decisions? A team with a high payroll that features several key players coming off underachieving seasons and a farm system that is more like a witness protection program.

The hope is that a different voice somehow will turn things around this season, but hope is all it is at this point.

And if Sox fans expect Ventura to have less patience with Adam Dunn and Alex Rios when they’re struggling, they ought to think again. Managers who were successful players think differently from managers who weren’t. Guys such as Ventura and Guillen can relate to players’ struggles because they went through them many times in
their careers. They give players the benefit of the doubt because they remember what that meant to them.

That will be the danger in assessing Ventura in his first season: How much is him and how much is the talent he has been given?

‘‘As a player, now as a manager, there was a way people went about their business that made them successful,’’ Ventura said. ‘‘That’s what I have to go off of.’’

What will we have to go off of to measure his success? It definitely won’t be his news conferences.