ozzie ozzie ozzie

tonight the white sox will retire number 13 in honor of their longtime shortstop and then manager, ozzie guillen. to mark the occasion, i am sharing his 1991 o-pee-chee card

which i have added to my retired number collection. i think the "sox" branded batting glove is a nice touch. here's the back:

those are his stats through his first six seasons with the club. in all, guillen played for the white sox for 13 seasons, amassing over 1600 hits while winning a gold glove and being named the 1985 american league rookie of the year. i remember watching a game of the week broadcast that season, and tim mccarver proudly recalled his high school spanish class and called him "ozzie gui-jen". it made me question my own education, because i was taught that the double-l in spanish was a "y" sound and so i thought the guy was "ozzie gui-yen". i later learned not to listen to mccarver too closely.

as you might expect, guillen ranks in the top ten of many white sox offensive statistical categories, and he is at the top in terms of defensive war. following his retirement as a player, he went on to manage the white sox for over seven seasons, leading them to the world series championship in 2005. he is the third person for whom the number 13 has been retired in honor of, joining billy wagner (astros) and guillen's boyhood idol, dave concepcion (reds).

in other white sox retired number news. i recently saw the video of dewayne wise's catch to preserve mark buerhle's perfect game again, and noticed that the catch was made in front of one of the retired number murals that the club has on their outfield wall (billy pierce's number 19 to be specific). i tracked down a card from 2012 topps gypsy queen showing the catch

and added it to the header portion of my retired number collection. i also found that wise's 2013 topps update card

features a different play in front of the minnie minoso/9 mural, and i added that card to the collection as well. if you're paying attention to uniform numbers, wise wore different numbers each time he was with the white sox (he left after the 2009 season and returned in 2012). he had three different stints in toronto, and wore a different number each time there as well. he may not have any of his numbers retired, but he shouldn't have to pay for a meal or drinks in chicago thanks to his catch during buerhle's masterpiece.