Williams has a little fun with Beckham, Guillen

Ten minutes before Saturday's nonwaiver trade deadline, Paul Konerko and Gordon Beckham were dining in the White Sox lunchroom.

With the MLB Network's deadline special blaring from almost every TV in the clubhouse, the 34-year-old Sox captain decided to have a little fun with the second-year second baseman.

"This is about the time in the show where Kenny Williams says, 'The (heck) with it,' " Konerko said. " 'I'll give you Gordon Beckham!"

Unbeknownst to Konerko and Williams, the White Sox general manager at that moment planned to relieve his deadline frustrations at Beckham's expense.

Moments after Konerko uttered his words, Williams beckoned for Beckham to join him in manager Ozzie Guillen's office.

"He had this look like, 'No, really?' " Williams said. "Ozzie didn't know anything about it and when he saw Beckham walk in and he saw me close the door behind Beckham, he went, 'No!' And the other coaches went, 'No!'

"I sat Gordon down in the chair and I said, 'Well, I really would like to say one thing to you before I get into the nuts and bolts of this stuff.

"I said, 'That at-bat you had (Friday) night when you pushed across that run, it was one of the best at-bats you had all year. And I just want to say nice job. And I shook his hand.

"And he said, 'That's it?' So he had a sigh of relief, Ozzie had a sigh of relief - and started cursing at me."

Williams enjoyed the moment immensely, mostly because Beckham wondered whether the no-trade guarantee he received earlier in the week had expired.

"It was a little bit of a jump-start to my day, I guess," Beckham said. "It's nice to be wanted, but I'm having fun here. We're winning here, so no part of me wants to leave. It's nice to still be here, I guess."

Williams claimed Saturday he never thought about moving the 23-year-old Beckham, who entered Saturday's game with a .365 average, .386 on-base average and .594 slugging percentage since June 25.

"I was not trading Gordon Beckham in any of these deals," Williams said. "And pretty much the conversation started and stopped with that."