Guillen tired of taps on wallet

Former Kansas City reliever Horacio Ramirez, traded to the White Sox late Saturday, kidded with reporters Sunday that if there were any tensions between the Royals and the Sox when the two teams meet for a series at U.S. Cellular this week, he'd probably end up serving as a peacemaker.

Just bringing up that benches-clearing brouhaha in Kansas City last week really got Ozzie Guillen's blood boiling when the subject was broached during his Sunday morning meeting of the press.

After all, the to-do cost the Sox skipper some serious cash in league-mandated fines.

"Nothing is going to happen," Guillen began calmly when the topic was brought up.

Then the steam started to release a bit.

"You know what, I'll be honest with you, I'm tired of making people money," Guillen said. "Seriously. I'm the piñata in this (stuff). All of a sudden they are punishing me.

"It's pretty frustrating sometimes. When they take that kind of money, I'm not going to put up with that. I'll protect my players and do what I have to do, but that's a lot of money, and I don't know if people appreciate that."

Getz a chance: Before he even donned a major-league uniform, the newest White Sox arrival - infielder Chris Getz - already had played games in Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park this season.

Getz competed at the House Ruth Built in a Futures game as part of the all-star festivities and had just finished playing another Futures game at Fenway against Pawtucket on Saturday when he got the call to pack his bags for Chicago.

"The whole season's been great, and the opportunity to play in both those places without ever being called up was pretty surreal," Getz said.

Oh, Contreras: Despite writhing in pain on the grass near first base with a torn Achilles' tendon that will keep him out of action for quite a while, pitcher Jose Contreras' mind was on his White Sox teammates.

"It's a shame because I've never seen anybody more proud and want to be part of this," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "He was telling me when he was down, 'Oh, man, I'm disappointed. I don't know what to do.'

"Everything he said was about how he disappointed the team. It hurt to hear that come from somebody's mouth. He's not worried that his career might be over; he's worried about if he can help us this year. That's a class man."

Power play: The Sox came into Sunday's game leading the majors with 162 homers and were on pace to finish with 226, which would be the third-largest total in franchise history behind the 2004 (242) and 2006 (236) teams.