It took a summit with Jerry Reinsdorf, but Ozzie Guillen will be returning to the White Sox in 2011, without an extension in hand, and without an airtight endorsement from Kenny Williams:
"It was very short," Williams said. "I asked him directly 'Do you wantto be here? Do you want to be the manager of the Chicago White Sox?' Hesaid, 'Absolutely.' That it's all he ever wanted. He wanted to know hisstatus and I told him I hope I never have another manager -- at leastwhile I'm in this chair -- for the Chicago White Sox other than him."
I've seen this move before. Often times, when someone would inquire to my buddy's grandpa regarding how many 7 and 7's he had, he'd answer, "This is my first drink of the day ... with this hand." The 2011 White Sox budget could very well have a new furniture allowance.
But seriously, that leaves the door open for the Williams-promotion-Hahn-replacement scheme, where Rick Hahn could take over, discover that their philosophies don't mesh, and Williams wouldn't have -- or choose to have -- the authority to change his mind.
I'm not saying he's setting it up for Guillen to be replaced -- he'll deny any other teams permission to talk to him, and Reinsdorf probably wouldn't allow it anyway. However, he might be hinting that the decision won't be his for much longer. Williams did say he's not planning on rebuilding, so it might be one more year with him at the helm.
Guillen said he wanted to figure out how confident they were in his Chicago future so he could figure out how deep to set both personal and business roots. To his credit, Guillen is saying all the right things:
"It's one thing, better than yesterday, hopefully worse than tomorrow,'' Guillen said of the relationship. "We have work to do. Not on the field. Not about our work ethic is very good. What we do, what we get paid to do is very good. We're going to get better about stuff happening in the past. Communication is going to be better. Hopefully everything goes back to normal. How normal it's going to be? It will take a little while. But that's what we want. That's what he wants. That's what I want. I guess that's what our family needs. Everything will move forward, for good.''
However, shortly after the decision was announced, good ol' Oney Guillen made sure everybody knew he was vaguely upset, telling his brother, "I went from having a good day. To a very bad (fornicating) day." We can only hope that means Reinsdorf's only other request -- aside from working together to win -- involved a muzzle.
And good news for Gang Greg and all you Walkermaniacs out there -- the coaching staff will return for 2011 as well.
Greg Walker and Don Cooper are definitely in the fold, and Joey Cora will be there too, as long as he isn't offered the managerial job of his dreams.
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Shutdown corner:
*Bobby Jenks doesn't know if he'll be able to pitch in the final week of the season due to a nerve issue in his forearm.
*Gordon Beckham is going to take batting practice today to see if his hand will hold up to contact. He wants to finish the season on the field.
*Alex Rios bruised his knee squarely in the 6-1 loss to the Red Sox on Monday night. More about his status will be known today.
