Reinsdorf calls for unity, Guillen for serenity
While owner Jerry Reinsdorf openly wished for peace among White Sox and Cubs fans, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen also wished for peace - and quiet.
"I'm glad it's over," Guillen said of the Cubs-Sox series that ran two consecutive weekends. "Have I had enough? Of course I've had enough.
"For the fans, it's great. They have a lot of fun. No way can you get better than this for regular season games, but six games so close together, it's a lot for us."
Leaning on the batting cage, head down and looking physically tired, Guillen said that it takes a toll on players, coaches and managers when they alter their regular season routine.
"There's so much extra stuff to do and it's tiring for everyone. In that way, it's like playoffs," Guillen said. "It's exhausting for me. I hope it's not for the players.
"But I'm glad it's over. I think three games would be enough. Six is a lot and they don't need to be right on top of each other like this."
Reinsdorf, meanwhile, offered an olive branch to Cubs fans and tried to take the edge off difficult relations with his North Side neighbors.
"It would be nice if everyone in Chicago rooted for both teams," Reinsdorf said. "When I was growing up, if the Dodgers weren't playing the Yankees in the World Series, I wanted the Yankees to win.
"There are an awful lot of people in Chicago who root for both teams. When we brought the (World Series) team to a Bulls game, everyone in the building stood up and cheered, and half those people are Cubs fans.
"Really, I don't get why you can't like both teams."
But Reinsdorf also takes a realistic approach to a generations-old conflagration.
"I've asked a lot of White Sox fans, if you were given the choice of both teams in the playoffs or neither team being in the playoffs, what would you pick?" Reinsdorf laughed. "The answer is usually, 'Neither, because I can't take the chance the Cubs might win.' And these are from some fairly intelligent people."
Owner and manager completely agree that the fans are the only ones who benefit from interleague play.
"It takes away from the World Series, but the fans want it, so I gave up that fight a long time ago," Reinsdorf said. "These are just games. They don't mean anything. The games (in the division) are the wins that can turn out to be important.
"But the fans want it, and if the fans want it, they are entitled to it."
So Sox fans got their revenge Sunday night, holding up a giant "L'' flag in the left-field bleachers, and chanting, "Sweep, sweep, sweep,'' as Cubs fans did a week ago.
"It will be a different Monday in Chicago,'' Guillen said. "I know it was hard for White Sox fans last week.''
But when you add up the six games together, it amounts to precisely what Reinsdorf said.
It didn't mean a thing.
Seam stress
Unlike his made-for-TV production a year ago, Lou Piniella's tantrum Sunday night was genuine and completely appropriate.
The Cubs got absolutely robbed on a Joe Crede check-swing call that was somehow missed by home plate umpire Rob Drake, and then missed again by thin-skinned first base ump Chad Fairchild.
Had both umps not stared and pointed into the dugout and begged for a confrontation, it would have ended right there.
But Drake baited Piniella as he tried to head toward first base, and eventually tossed him when Piniella told him to mind his own business, in so many words.
Fairchild blew another call in the fifth, calling Ronny Cedeno out on the back end of a double play, giving bench coach Alan Trammell a chance to light up both umps again.
Third and inches
It wasn't a great weekend for Aramis Ramirez, who was the Cubs' star last weekend.
He went 0-for-13 with 10 men left on base. He also tried to hit it 10 miles Saturday in the ninth when all the Cubs needed was a basehit or a flyball to tie the game, and hit into a double play as the tying run in the eighth Sunday.
He was invisible at third on a stolen base attempt Friday, and Sunday he stood in the middle of the infield when Kosuke Fukudome tried to nail a runner at third, while pitcher Sean Marshall had to run over and cover the bag.
Granted, the Jim Thome shift was on, but Ramirez was a passenger on the play, unable to move the few feet from short to third, as both runners took an extra base while Ramirez stood and watched.
The flip side
Sox second baseman Alexei Ramirez made his second dazzling glove flip for a force at second in four days, and does something almost every day to remind you that he's going to be a factor around here for a long time.
The quote
Sox GM Ken Williams on why players wear loose-fitting uniforms today, compared to when he was a player: "Their bodies aren't as good as ours were, so they have to wear the baggy uniforms."
Best line
Mark DeRosa to Ozzie Guillen on having to play an American League schedule: "No thanks."
And finally...
Ozzie Guillen on playing a Sunday night game: "I'd rather be home having dinner with my family. But it's national TV and that means we're playing good. If you stink, they don't put you on in prime time."