Mr. 1,000

Ozzie manages his 1,000th game for the White Sox tonight, setting two milestones in the process. He becomes the fourth manager in Sox history to reach the 1,000 plateau _ the others are Jimmy Dykes (1,850), Al Lopez (1,495) and Tony LaRussa (1,035). Also, Ozzie becomes one of only four active managers to reach 1,000 games with his initial team _ the others are Minnesota’s Ron Gardenhire, Toronto’s Cito Gaston and Los Angeles’ Mike Scioscia. Your thoughts? “Since Opening Day it feels like more than 1,000 games,” Ozzie said with a laugh. “I think I’m just lucky that the front office and Jerry (Reinsdorf) gave me good ballclubs because that’s the only way you can stay. Most of the time managers get fired, they get bad teams, can’t manage them and all of a sudden you don’t have the opportunity. They gave me the opportunity, gave me the people, and I think that’s why you reach that milestone.” Ozzie was asked how he's grown since taking over as the White Sox' manager in 2004. “I got fat,” he said. Will he ever quit? “(I'll get) fired because I'm not a quitter,” Ozzie said. “When I want to quit, I'll do a lot of stupid things to make sure they fire me and get paid. No, I think getting fired is better because when you quit it's hard for you to find another job because I think if you quit, a lot teams out there are going to think you're a quitter or you can't handle yourself or you can't handle the heat, you can't handle losing and it's tough to get a job.” Here are tonight's lineups: Sox Pierre - DH Beckham - 2B Jones - LF Konerko - 1B Rios - CF Pierzynski - C Quentin - RF Teahen - 3B Ramirez - SS Floyd - RHP Royals DeJesus - RF Podsednik - LF Butler - 1B Guillen - DH Callaspo - 3B Kendall - C Aviles - SS Maier - CF Getz - 2B Hochevar - RHP