Guillen says he knows who his friends are

The great debate continued Friday - are White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and general manager Kenny Williams pals or aren't they?

"I've got three friends; I always say that," Guillen said. "They don't have any choices, they have to be my friends. It's (sons) Ozzie, Oney, and Ozney.

"Even if they don't want to be my friends, they have to. Everybody else, even my wife, do you want to be my friend? Fine."

On Wednesday, Williams was asked if he has a "strained" relationship with Guillen, which dates to spring training and the controversy involving middle son Oney's negative "tweets."

"Like I said previously, we're as tight as we need to be to get the job done," said Williams, who then detailed how he had a major argument with Guillen in November 2003 before hiring him as manager.

"I want to make it clear about friendship," Guillen said. "I don't know the difference between hugging and kissing each other or getting along and making this thing work.

"We talk about it; we talk about the ballclub. Whatever he needs from us, he's got it. Anything we need from him, we've got it.

"I don't know about friendship. When you put a family between, it doesn't matter, your boss, anybody, there's going to be feelings out there. Besides that, I'm fine. Kenny should be fine, I guess."

With that, Guillen really put the entire controversy in perspective.

"Remember, I said this in spring training, if we're winning, and we're in July and we're winning games and we're in first place, we all love each other," Guillen said.

"Do we like each other right now? No, but I don't expect that. I expect the fans to be upset. I think the media should be upset.

"I'm upset. I'm not happy. I'm not satisfied, but, hey, this is the way it is. We can control this. The fans and the media can't control this. My job is to try to turn this team around, and hopefully I'll start doing my job."

Circle the wagons: Manager Ozzie Guillen said it has been tough walking around town in the wake of the White Sox' slow start, and even followers from his native Venezuela are calling for his dismissal.

Sox first baseman Paul Konerko said it's best just to block out the bad vibes.

"You have to expect that everybody on the outside, when you're not winning, everybody you come across and everything that is written and said will be negative," Konerko said.

"If you take that approach, every now and again you're surprised if you do happen to hear something that someone actually is behind you.

"But I think if you take the approach that everybody on the outside of this room is against you and going to be negative, then it doesn't really surprise you. What someone thinks on the outside has no bearing on what's going to happen out there on the field tonight.

"That's part of playing in a big city and part of being a big-leaguer. You've just got to block that stuff out and get to the stuff that's really important to you as a player."