Marlins May Change Everything but Ozzie Guillen If the Miami Marlins think Ozzie Guillen is brash, blunt, crass and crazy enough to kiss a dog on a magazine cover, Mark Buehrle has news for them: they're right. "He keeps it even-keel - it's just about 12 notches above everybody else," said Buehrle, who has played for Guillen for eight years. That's his even-keel all the time. But Buehrle, the former Chicago White Sox starter, would want his new teammates to know something else about their manager. For all his bluster, Guillen is a softy at heart. "He loves my kids," Buehrle said. "He jokes around, saying, "I don't care about you - I want to see your kids, that's the only reason I want you on the team." Ever since my littlest one was young, Ozzie would come down the hallway and he'd do this real loud whistle, and all the kids would run up to him. He always has candy for them. He goes in and gets them some M&Ms out of the candy jar. From him loving our kids so much, it's hard not to have feelings for the guy. In December, Buehrle signed up for four more years of Guillen, leaving the only team he has known to join his old manager in South Florida. It helped, of course, that the Marlins were bingeing on free-agent talent and willing to pay Buehrle $58 million. But Guillen was a draw, and the Marlins need a draw. Their fan base is notoriously skeptical, with good reason. Their short history reads like a cheap romance novel - intense bursts of passion followed by deep betrayal. In 19 seasons as the Florida Marlins, they won two World Series but regularly traded top talent to save money. Guillen coached for the Marlins in 2003, the last year the team reached the World Series. His job is to lead them back, nothing more. The team has been rebranded as the Miami Marlins, with splashy new uniforms and a dazzling downtown stadium. But Guillen is not here to market the brand. He does not even have his own pregame radio show. "Hey, man, it's baseball," he said this week. You got a new ballpark, new uniform, new manager, new everything and you losing games, people don't care about that. People care about that for a week. But after the season starts, it's about winning games. I hope these people not go to see the Marlins because of the new ballpark. I hope when they sit in the chairs they're very excited to watch a good baseball team play the game. But if you want to go to the ballpark and watch it, just go Aventura Mall, it's more fun there, more stuff to watch. I want the people of Miami to go there to watch very good baseball people compete. The Marlins should be much better than last season, when Edwin Rodriguez resigned as manager during a 72-90, last-place free-fall. Besides Buehrle, they signed closer Heath Bell and shortstop Jose Reyes - bumping Hanley Ramirez to third base - and traded for the temperamental starter Carlos Zambrano. The Marlins flirted with signing Albert Pujols but would not bend their policy against no-trade clauses, an admirable stance but one that, perhaps, illustrates the uncertainty of their strategy. Still, they accomplished most of their plan to supplement a core that includes the slugger Giancarlo Stanton and the ace starter Josh Johnson, who missed most of last season with a shoulder injury. "To see this came to fruition is exciting," said catcher John Buck, who signed a three-year deal before last season. "They said, "Trust us, the next year is when we're going to really get this thing rolling." They definitely did what they said. With Reyes, Buehrle and Bell, those are big parts of it. So, too, is Guillen, who led the White Sox to their first championship in 88 years with a World Series sweep in 2005. His teams reached the playoffs only one other time, and he often clashed with General Manager Kenny Williams. But players generally loved him; Guillen said he still speaks with Paul Konerko, A. J. Pierzynski and Alex Rios. "He's a players" manager," said Aaron Rowand, the White Sox center fielder in 2005 who signed with Miami to play for Guillen again. He's up front, he's honest with you, he talks with you, he's constantly around the clubhouse. He's a guy you can relate to. Maybe so, but Guillen is not wired to blend in and be one of the guys. He will always speak his mind, he said, because if managers are going to be blamed when things go badly, they should at least be true to themselves. When a reporter asked Guillen if the peach-scented candle in his office was a sign that he was calmer now, Guillen recoiled. "Oh, come on man, no," he said. I don't like the smell of the clubhouse, that's why. I never be calm. I be Ozzie Guillen. Guillen said playing for him is simple. He keeps practices relatively short, asking only that players respect the game and play it right. Ramirez, a mercurial star, has moved to third without complaint, and Zambrano, who is friends with Guillen, appears to be in great shape. Guillen makes no promises about his team, other than to say that if everyone plays to his abilities, the Marlins will compete. He has never pretended that he came to Miami for a better chance to win; he came because the Marlins gave him $10 million for four years. "I don't know why people get so ticked when I say, "I go get paid," " Guillen said, sprinkling his words with the usual dashes of four-letter spice. I got three kids, I plan to have grandkids. I'm not going to take care of my grandkids with rings. I'm going to take care of them with money. Ten million dollars, Buehrle could have added, buys an awful lot of M&Ms.