As a player, Ozzie Guillen used to be tagged with the adjective "slick" -- as in, "slick-fielding shortstop."

As a manager, it's just the opposite. Throughout his successful but often tumultuous time at the helm of the Chicago White Sox, Guillen has been about as slick as a chainsaw.

Since assuming command of the White Sox in 2004, Guillen has tangled with his own players, umpires (12 ejections, two suspensions during his career), fans, the media (he famously called Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti "a fag") and players on other teams (labeling Alex Rodriguez as a "phony," for example).

Most recently, late in the 2009 season, he blasted his team for watching football on a lockerroom TV after a listless loss to the Detroit Tigers. In May, he touched off a storm of controversy by propping up nude female inflatable dolls in the White Sox dugout "for inspiration."

Guillen's explanation of the latter incident is typical of his often fractured comments: "Everyone in the clubhouse, 100 percent of the people in the clubhouse, they are 18 years old and that's a private thing. If the players do it in the dugout so everyone in the public could see it, or did it in the hotel lobby... we did it in the clubhouse. A lot of worse things happen in the clubhouse. I don't really know why people are making it a big deal. If people got their feelings hurt because of that... they don't really know much about baseball."

Guillen is all about maximum effort from his players, a philosophy that reflects his own exhuberent style as a player with the White Sox (for whom he was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1985), Baltimore Orioles, Atlanta Braves and Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

As for his often profane off-the-cuff remarks, Guillen likes to point out that he is a native of Venezuala and English is a second language.

"I like trouble," he admitted in one interview.

Despite his frequent appearances on YouTube, however, Guillen has managed to inject some of his own enthusiasm into his team. The year after he arrived in Chicago, his team won the World Series in a four-game sweep on Houston, making him the first Latin-born manager ever to accomplish that feat.

Guillen was born Jan. 20, 1964 in Ocumare del Tuy, Venezuela, and his first sport of choice was volleyball. As a young player, he became renowned for his speed and glovework, which gained him the attention of a wide spectrum of Latin scouts.

Those attributes continued to serve him well in the majors. He made the American League All-Star team in 1988, 1990 and '91, and won a Gold Glove in 1990. He also became associated with winning -- the Atlanta Braves won the National League pennant in 1999 when he was a team members, and he coached for the 2003 World Champion Florida Marlins.