CLEVELAND — Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen doesn’t mind being unpopular among players who don’t play for him.

“In sports you’ve got to be the bad boy. Remember Billy Martin?” Guillen said Tuesday about placing second in a players poll to the Cubs’ Lou Piniella as the manager for which players would least like to play.
In an upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated, 26 percent of major leaguers polled voted for the combustible Piniella, followed by Guillen at 21 percent. St. Louis’ Tony LaRussa was next at 10 percent, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Joe Torre and Cleveland’s Eric Wedge at four percent apiece.
“Tony was No. 3 and he’s won a couple titles,” said Guillen, who guided the White Sox to a World Series win in 2005 in his second year in Chicago. “Looks like players picked old-school guys. Maybe they don’t like old school, don’t like to be told what to do.
“It doesn’t bother me. If 59 percent of my players say they like me, that’s good enough for me.