You can point finger at Reinsdorf

The debate has been whether Kenny Williams or Ozzie Guillen is more responsible for the White Sox’ increasingly embarrassing follies.

The correct answer is Jerry Reinsdorf.

As field manager, Guillen is responsible for Sox players. As general manager, Williams is responsible for Guillen and the players.

As Sox chairman, Reinsdorf is responsible for his players, his manager, his general manager … for everything.

Guillen gets the most heat because he is in front of the cameras every day, twice a day actually, before and after each game. Williams gets the next most heat for, well, generally managing the Sox into whatever they do.

Finally and foremost is Reinsdorf, heralded by many as the best sports owner in town for his work with the Sox and the Bulls.

Reinsdorf is the man who for eight years has apologized for the outrageous Guillen, referring to him as the Hispanic Jackie Mason as if that were flattering.

Meanwhile, Reinsdorf has condoned Williams’ combative nature that tends to escalate minor disagreements into major disputes.

No wonder the White Sox aren’t easy for their fans to embrace.

Everything is OK when the Sox win, and they were more than OK when they won the 2005 World Series.

Reinsdorf’s philosophy has been build a winner and fans will come. But this season magnifies how easily fans can turn on this Sox organization when the team is mediocre at best.

As much as I like Guillen, he always has been more polarizing than popular. As for Williams, he always has been more tolerable than likable.

Guillen and Williams are easy targets while shielding Reinsdorf, just as Jerry Krause was and did as Bulls general manager.

Back in 2003, Reinsdorf reached the point where he had no choice but to ease Krause out as GM.

Now Reinsdorf has to decide whether it’s time with the Sox to ease out Guillen, Williams or both.

It’s one thing to achieve something with a minimum of dignity, as the Bulls often did during their six-championship dynasty decade.

It’s another thing to underachieve nothing with a minimum of dignity as the Sox have this year and overall have since failing to capitalize on that glorious 2005 season.

Is Reinsdorf embarrassed enough by the way Guillen and Williams have behaved? Is he frustrated enough by the Sox’ dwindling attendance? Is he disgusted enough by another mediocre record?

Altering the course of the franchise wouldn’t be all that difficult for Reinsdorf, who generally is loyal to his loyalists and resistant to change.

The chairman could convince Williams that the stress of the GM job is jeopardizing his health. He could convince Guillen that a fresh challenge as Marlins manager would be good for his health.

Then Reinsdorf, always suspicious of outsiders, could promote assistant general manager Rick Hahn, a better people person than Williams, and let him hire his own field manager, perhaps someone with better discretion than Guillen.

Or Jerry Reinsdorf could do nothing. Never underestimate the chairman’s leanings toward the status quo.

Doing something might not turn the White Sox into instant winners, but it just might restore some dignity to the franchise.

mimrem@dailyherald.com