End of an era

CHICAGO – Ozzie Guillen always puts on a good show when he speaks, and his performance Monday afternoon following a meeting with Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf turned out to be just the set-up for an even more dramatic second act.

Once the final out was recorded in a 4-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on a rainy night, the soap opera surrounding the manager’s status for 2012 came to end, when the club revealed that at Guillen’s request, it was releasing him from his contract so he could pursue other opportunities.

The White Sox added they retain the right to compensation should he accept a managerial post with another club next year, and amid reports they were working out a deal with the Florida Marlins, Guillen said he expected the matter to be settled before he leaves on vacation after the season.

"They let me go to talk to anyone I want," Guillen told a packed news conference. "Right now a lot of people are talking about Florida because that’s a team there are rumours there. The big thing they let me go to do what’s best for me and my family.

"The tougher deal I already did, when I talked to the players before the game. It was very, very emotional."

That meeting with his players came after Guillen and Reinsdorf met for 30-35 minutes. The contract extension beyond next year that Guillen was seeking wasn’t on the table and instead the two men worked out how to part ways after eight seasons at the helm for the 47-year-old.

It was an outcome weeks in the making. He finishes his tenure at 678-617, with World Series championship in 2005.

"We talked before," said Guillen. "I didn’t expect anything. Jerry is a very smart man and when we talked, we talked about what we’re going to do. Jerry’s doing me a favour. I don’t want to be coming here and not wanted to be here. That’s the end of the day."

Asked for Reinsdorf’s reasoning behind not granting an extension, Guillen replied: "I have a contract for next year and I (didn’t) earn that contract bro. I didn’t earn it. I don’t blame Jerry."

General manager Kenny Williams said a plan is in place and though he didn’t want to go into details, that he had candidates in mind to replace Guillen, who will not manage the remaining two games of the season.

Despite picking up Guillen’s 2011 option back in January, Williams wasn’t surprised by what transpired, saying there had been warning signs.

"We went through something similar last September and then you file it away," said Williams. "It was our hope the picking up of the option would temper some of this and keep the focus on matters at hand on the field for the season but it is what it is, it didn’t, and that’s all I’ll say about that."

The parting comes with the White Sox sitting a disappointing third in the AL Central at 78-82, a season well below expectations. Though their relationship was rocky the past two seasons, Williams insisted he and Guillen had more good times than bad together.

Emotion, he added, had no place in the decision.

"I take it very personally and I for one am not walking out of the building Wednesday with my head held high because I’m embarrassed at this year," he said. "I’m going to work hard to make sure we right the ship."

During Guillen’s memorable first act in the afternoon, he sounded like someone almost daring management to fire him as he discussed his situation with media in the White Sox dugout.

In that session, Guillen said his conversation with Reinsdorf resolved nothing and he wasn’t disappointed about that, since "I can’t go there and say, ‘Man, give me $2 million, go the ATM machine and get it.’ There’s a process."

Guillen explained that he didn’t want to start next season as a lame duck, and at times he said he was seeking a raise – "(Forget) more years, I want more money," he bellowed – at times he wanted more stability through term.

"You know why? Next year starts the same way I got a great chance to get fired, and I don’t want to put myself in that situation," he said. "I don’t think I should do that. Eight years in the big-leagues, doing a pretty good job I think. That’s why it is what it is. I might sound arrogant, I might sound cocky, I might sound like, ‘Who in the freak do you think you are?’

"People can think what they want to think about me. Nobody is going to put money in the bank to take care of my kids. As soon as you’re out of here they forget who you were."

Money was a theme he came back to often, saying he needed to support his family and that unlike lawyers or doctors, as a baseball man he didn’t have a job for life.

That’s why while returning for 2012 without an extension was unacceptable, he wouldn’t be able to walk away either.

"I’ve got to talk to my wife, she got to cut her shopping process," Guillen said in one his funnier moments. "Ozzie got to quit drinking a little bit, Oney has to go to work, a lot of (stuff) has to go away. Ozney has to go to public school, hopefully he can get a scholarship somewhere, there’s a lot of (stuff). My mom has to cut salary a little bit, my dad has got to be healthy, my sister has got to find a rich man, there’s a lot behind the scenes. There’s a lot of things I have to pay."

There were other moments of levity, like when Guillen pointed out he lives in Chicago and complained that Reinsdorf, who also owns the NBA’s Bulls, wouldn’t cut him a deal on season’s tickets. Making things better on that front was that he regularly got free seats to watch the Blackhawks.

After his post-game news conference, he pounded his chest.

"I told my wife I’m not going to cry," he said. "I’m going to end it Chicago tough."

Shi Davidi is the MLB Insider for sportsnet.ca. Come back to read his insight and opinion regularly.