Twitter of Oz

The Twitterverse got more interesting this week as Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen started communicating with fans 140-characters at a time. If you're familiar the famously garrulous Guillen, a walking quote machine of Major League Baseball, you may be wondering whether he can say anything in just 140 characters.

White Sox general manager Kenny Williams isn't too happy about the Oz reaching out via the ultrapopular microblogging site. A week earlier it was announced by MLB.tv that Williams, Guillen and team owner Jerry Reinsdorf will be featured in a reality series featuring the behind-the-scenes workings of the trio to be shown on MLB TV this season. So it's OK to be on the show, but not OK to be spewing his wisdom on Twitter, according to Williams. Hmmm ...

Here's more on the controversy from a blog on USAToday.com: (http://bit.ly/bKVY67)

To Guillen's credit, he responded to the criticism via Twitter: "I love what I'm doing now. Followers, don't worry, I will be here for all of you."
- 7:42 PM Feb 24th

Guillen is also on Facebook, where he also responded to Williams' reaction to his participation in social media: "I like the support I will keep up with this thing all the way through."

Ozzie vows he won't leak team secrets via Twitter or Facebook. From what I've seen so far, he's using the forums to keep fans updated on his daily routine and sharing his emotions on being in the spring training camp in Glendale, Ariz. The White Sox manager is posting to the sites in both English and Spanish.

When I started following Ozzie @OzzieGuillen on Tuesday, there were 6,000-plus others doing the same. Today, he has more than 24,700 followers. He has more than 3,000 Facebook friends.

As a lifetime fan of the White Sox, I'll be watching and listening to more than the games this year. I know Ozzie will keep it fun!