Cooper: 'Everything Cowley Wrote Is A Bunch Of Lies'
(WSCR) After Joe Cowley accused White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper of being "Judas" to former manager Ozzie Guillen in a column Friday morning, Coop called into The Mully and Hanley Show to defend himself.
"Everything Joe Cowley wrote is a bunch of lies, which makes him a liar," Cooper said. "(Cowley has) been trying to find something to get me. For a while I knew this was coming. I knew something was coming. I didn't know the circumstances.
"I haven't talked to Joe Cowley in two years because I pulled him aside and told him, 'I don't like what you write. You're hurtful. You're uninformative, uninteresting and unfunny to me. Why would I want to help you do your job when you're hurtful to the people I like and people I know?'"
LISTEN: Don Cooper on The Mully and Hanley Show
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In his column Friday, Cowley wrote:
According to a major-league source, Cooper sidestepped Guillen — and the rest of the coaching staff — in June, going directly to Williams to beg for an extension. Cooper was breaking protocol because Williams had publicly stated two years before that the coaches' fates were in Guillen's hands.
And why would Williams want to retain Cooper, who got an un-Sox-like four-year extension? The feeling among the coaches was that Cooper was all too eager to share with Williams what was being said about the GM and club on a daily basis.
Cooper admitted he had discussions about an extension, but said he made his feelings known to the entire coaching staff, including Guillen, all season before he finally talked to Williams after the trade deadline.
"In spring training, all year long, all of the coaches had been talking about how everyone was signed but us. All of the coaches. We had to deal with it all year," Cooper said.
He said he asked assistant GM Rick Hahn when he should talk to Williams about an extension and he was told to do it after the trade deadline, which Cooper said he did. That conflicts with Cowley's report that stated the pitching coach "sidestepped Guillen" by going to Williams in June.
As for the notion that he was talking about Guillen behind his back to Williams, Cooper said: "Believe me, it was hard to get in touch with Kenny because of all the bickering and fighting all year that Kenny was kind of not around a lot. We weren't talking nearly as much. He wasn't in the clubhouse and we were on the road a lot."
Still, Cooper and Guillen clearly did not split on good terms. Cowley exposed a text that Guillen sent to Cooper after he was named the interim manager for the last two games that said: "You finally got what you wanted."
LISTEN: Joe Cowley on The McNeil and Spiegel Show
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Cooper admitted he received the text and expressed disappointment that Guillen let that text get out to Cowley.
"I guess this puts a damper on the 25 year reunion," he said.
When asked if Guillen "checked out" on the team as Cowley reported, Cooper didn't deny it, but said "You'll have to ask Ozzie that question."
Cooper also exposed Ozzie for not going to bat for his coaching staff and said he has no plans to talk to him in the near future.
"I was told that Ozzie was asked, 'What about your coaches? Let's sign your coaches,' and he said, 'No let them sweat,'" Cooper said.
As for his relationship with the Sun-Times:
"My feeling right now on the Sun-Times, and particularly Joe Cowley and to a degree, (White Sox beat writer) Darryl Van Schouwen, until I get a chance to talk to him, is this is the National Inquirer, it's a rag. And I'm telling you it's not the truth," Cooper said.
Cooper said he was upset with Van Schouwen for putting words in his mouth in a report earlier this week about the team's managerial candidates.
Cowley had a chance to respond when he joined The McNeil and Spiegel Show later in the day:
"Absolutely no lies," he said about his column. "It was funny because Cooper said it was full of lies, but then when Mully and Hanley asked him, 'Well did you get a text from Ozzie that said you finally got what you wanted?' Well, yeah. 'Did you go for a contract extension and talk to Kenny about it?' Yeah. So where are the lies?"
Cowley also said his track record on this story proves that he his column depicts the truth.
"Everything I have said has ended up being true," he said.
