Ventura’s message ‘straight to the point’

GLENDALE, Ariz. — New White Sox manager Robin Ventura has been a man of few words during the first week of spring training.

Addressing his players before Tuesday’s first full-squad workout, the trend continued.

“It was short,” Ventura said of his speech. “It was pretty short and straight to the point as far as showing up and getting prepared to play. We’re here to win games, but it’s important to me and the staff they show up every day and give a good effort.”

Ventura bristles a bit by constantly being referred to as “laid-back.” He does have fire under the surface, and some of it came out during his team meeting.

Simply put, Ventura is not going to tolerate players giving less than 100 percent.

“Everybody’s put too much time and effort into coming out here, organizing all this stuff and doing stuff for the team for guys just to show up and not care,” Ventura said.

“It’s offensive to me for people to come in and not put out a good effort. It’s pretty much that simple, for right now.”

As spring training progresses into the season, Ventura’s verdict will really start coming into play.

“Play hard,” Ventura said. “Right now you’re going through drills. I want them having fun, but I want them taking it serious and realizing we don’t put it on the schedule just to kind of go through the motions and just have it there. I want it done right or we’re going to stay out until we do it right.”

With the Sox going in a younger direction, Ventura asked his veteran players to set a good example.

“He put it in our hands as veterans to be leaders and do things the right way,” relief pitcher Matt Thornton said. “We’re going to play the game the right way, play hard and surprise some people.”

Family feud:It#146;s no secret general manager Kenny Williams and former manager Ozzie Guillen were not on the same page the past two seasons.Paul Konerko was asked about the ramifications of Williams and Guillen not getting along.#147;I don#146;t think it was a huge deal as much as it was made out to be,#148; Konerko said. #147;But there were definitely some times late in the year last year, especially where there were probably games and days given away because of people worrying about things that were not related to the game of baseball.#147;I have a good feeling that no matter what happens this year, whatever our record winds up being, I think you can look at that record and say that#146;s what this team did. That#146;s the true measure of this group of guys.#147;I think the last couple years, and especially toward the end last year, we were just giving away games. Big-league players, you should be mentally tougher than to have that stuff bother you.#148;