Saw this blurb in SIs truth and rumors column this morning.
Vicente Padilla, you have been warned. That was the message from White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen on Thursday, Padilla is the Rangers' scheduled starter for Sunday's series finale, and as far as Guillen is concerned, he's also the lightning rod for the controversy that surrounded Guillen after a June 14 showdown in Texas. -- Chicago Sun-Times
This could make Sunday's game interesting.
Ozzie takes aim at Rangers' Padilla Vicente Padilla, you have been warned.
That was the message from White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen on Thursday as his team prepared to host the Texas Rangers for three games this weekend.
"If Padilla hits somebody, believe me, we're going to do something about it. That's a guarantee,'' Guillen said. "I don't know what's going to happen, but something's going to happen. Make sure they know it, too.''
Padilla is the Rangers' scheduled starter for Sunday's series finale, and as far as Guillen is concerned, he's also the lightning rod for the controversy that surrounded Guillen after a June 14 showdown in Texas.
Padilla hit Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski twice in that game, and when Sox rookie reliever Sean Tracey did not return the favor with Hank Blalock at the plate, Guillen exploded in the dugout -- not only on Tracey, but on the entire team. Guillen said it was the third time a pitcher hadn't protected his teammates this season, and he'd had enough.
Tracey was sent back to the minors after the game to make room for the acquisition of reliever David Riske, and Guillen was criticized by local and national media for his handling of the rookie. Days later, the heat turned up on him even more when he called Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti a derogatory term for homosexual.
"Are we going to do something about it? No, it's over,'' Guillen said about initiating trouble this weekend. "I already got suspended, [attended a sensitivity] class and they killed me because Padilla hit somebody.
"I was the one paying the price, and I had nothing to do with that. Everybody was all over me because I was screaming in the dugout. Then I called one guy one thing because he was all over me, and I had to go to class. There were so many things that happened to me.
"Believe me, if Padilla does something about it, we're going to do something about it. You can count on that. I don't care if we're suspended for 100 years.''
While Padilla has remained silent on why he threw at Pierzynski, several Rangers players have said Pierzynski and other Sox players were talking trash to Padilla from the dugout during a June 3 start by the right-hander at U.S. Cellular Field.
The Sox didn't like how long Padilla waited between pitches or his body language.
"What's new?'' Pierzynski replied when asked why he was the one singled out.
Pierzynski doesn't expect any problems this weekend.
"But then again, you couldn't have expected it to happen the first time, so you never know,'' he said. "He has the option to throw where he wants to because the ball is in his hands. We'll see.''
Guillen said if Padilla decides to act on that option, there will be consequences with his teammates.
"If something happens, I'm going to protect one of my players, hit [a Texas hitter] and point to [Padilla] when I hit him and then make them fight with their pitcher,'' Guillen said. "You hit people when they do something wrong, I agree with that. But you hit people because you don't like them, I don't think that's a good [way] to play the game.
"I have to protect my players. I'm not here for Major League Baseball. I'm here for my players, and I'm going to do everything I can in my power to make sure my players perform in the right way and protect them.''