Williams vs. Guillen? Par for the course

In spring training, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen gave Market restaurant a bad review.

Sox GM Kenny Williams is part owner of the downtown establishment.

"He can't come to the restaurant," Williams said. "He's got to pay now."

Other than that, Williams said he has the same relationship with Guillen that's existed from the time they were White Sox teammates from 1986-88.

That's not saying they always see eye to eye.

"I don't think that we have a relationship that is an up-and-down relationship so much as it's been consistent through all our years," Williams said. "Listen, I have to remind everyone first and foremost, I hired this guy after an argument we had, OK? My expectation level of getting along isn't that high, OK? I hired a guy that I knew would fight we me from time to time, OK?

"A guy that I needed to fight with me from time to time. Why? Because through that, you know you've got a person on the other end of things that is not going to tell you what you want to hear and is always going to challenge you, and is going to challenge your players. So I'm OK with an occasional disagreement here and there; it's not a big deal to me. As a matter of fact, it's welcomed."

As for that argument? It came at a restaurant near O'Hare right before Williams hired Guillen as manager in November 2003.

"I pushed a button," Williams recalled. "I pushed a button on purpose. I told him straight out, 'You've got a heck of a sales job if you think I'm going to hire you and put you in charge of the Chicago White Sox. You've got a (heck) of a sales job.' And then he proceeded to turn eyes in the restaurant by telling me, 'Well what the (heck) did you bring me up here for?' and went on from there.

"And somewhere throughout the course of him laying into me I decided that, 'Yeah, this might be the guy.' I don't know what greater illustration I can give you, other than I hired a guy who argued with me and seven years later, we're still standing."