A uniquely Ozzie Father’s Day memory
By Chris Weber
Is there anything worse than somebody ruining a surprise? On the flip side, you usually get a classic story out of that incident, especially if the person breaking the news is a hometown hero and the first Latino manager to win a World Series
My wife Margaux and I have a strong belief that the greatest surprise in life is the birth of your child. You go through nine months of talking, boy or girl? Girl or boy?
You throw a 3-year-old daughter with attitude into the mix, and then suddenly it’s, “Girl, girl, girl. I’m having a sister, a sister, a sister, a sister.” It all adds up to that moment when the doctor hands you the baby and says “Dad, here you go; tell everyone what you have.”
“Well, I was never good at science, but I’m pretty confident he’s a boy,” I responded. “We have a boy!”
Immediately tears of joy everywhere and then it turned to, “Uh oh, how do we tell our precious one that she has a brother and not a sister?”
A few hours later I headed home, where her Papa was staying with her, to bring her back to the hospital. The whole way she’s saying, “Dad is my sister here? Is she at the hospital with mom?”
“I don’t know, I don’t want to know until I bring you with me,” I told my daughter.
She said, “Oh I’m so excited.”
“Please let her be great when she sees and meets the little guy,” I told myself.
We had a big plan to sit her down and talk about how great it will be to have a baby brother.
We rolled in and were stunned to see Ozzie Guillén Jr., the son of the former White Sox star and manager. I had just interviewed his unbelievable father almost a week earlier.
We discussed our situations as Ozzie Jr. was expecting his first child at the same time.
After a brief greeting I told Ozzie Jr. we just had our baby. He gave me a big hug, and I whispered, “We had a boy, I got my boy and my girl.”
“Congrats!” he said. “We are here to have our baby as well. You should go see my dad. He’s in the coffee shop.”
I wished him and his wife the best of luck and promised to say hi to Ozzie Sr. after I hit the gift shop for a balloon.
After we hit the gift shop, I had to trick my daughter into buying a blue balloon instead of a pink one. Then we headed to the elevator. On our way we passed the coffee shop and saw Ozzie Sr.
“Ozzie, congrats! Big day for you becoming a grandpa,” I said.
“No, congrats to you,” he replied. “I heard from Ozzie that you had a baby.”
Then he gave me a big hug. I thanked him, introduced him to my little girl, and told him we were headed to see the baby for the first time.
“Congratulations, you have a little brother,” the former
White Sox manager said after bending down to see my daughter at eye level. “Can you believe it? You are going to be a big sister to your brother? A baby boy, isn’t that so great? Oh man, a little brother. Congratulations. Are you so excited?”
I cringed. My little one just stared at this energetic man. I finally popped out of my disbelief and shock.
“OK. Thanks, Ozzie, we got to jet,” I said. “Good luck to Ozzie Jr and his wife today, very special day all around.”
In his defense he had no idea that she didn’t know that she had a brother instead of the sister she wanted.
We then walked off and she said to me so purely and innocently, “Dad, who was that man?”
After a quick laugh, I said, “That was Ozzie Guillén. Legendary Chicago baseball player and manager and now the answer to our lifelong trivia question of ‘who told you that you had a little bro and not a sis?’”
Lucky for us, his Venezuelan accent was pretty thick, and I’m not sure she understood all his words as he was talking pretty fast, Ozzie style. Or she just kept it to herself and let us tell her the news. She’s good like that.
Anyway, maybe the surprise was ruined. Perhaps it wasn’t. Either way, thank you Ozzie Guillén Sr. for playing a pivotal role in a legendary family story.
Happy Father’s Day.
Featured Image: Courtesy Weber Family