CHICAGO (AP) -White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen swears he sees rats bigger than pigs in the batting cage and gets sick whenever he visits Wrigley Field.
Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano acknowledged this season he turns ivy green with envy when he sees the facilities at other stadiums.
The old ballpark, for all its charm, certainly has its flaws. But it’s going nowhere.
So, for that matter, are Chicago’s baseball teams at the moment.
“It might be the battle of who’s the worst in town,” Guillen said over the weekend in Milwaukee.
He was joking. Sorta.
Division winners a year ago, both teams are big disappointments heading into their three-game series at Wrigley that starts Tuesday.
The Cubs are 30-30 after winning back-to-back NL Central titles and just fired their hitting coach in an effort to jump-start their sputtering lineup. The news isn’t much better on the South Side, where the White Sox are 30-34.
ng average, while the Cubs are 26th at .246. A healthy and productive Carlos Quentin would certainly help the White Sox, but he was struggling before he went on the disabled list with plantar fasciitis in his left foot.
The Cubs miss Aramis Ramirez, who was batting .364 when he dislocated his left shoulder last month. Compounding matters is that Alfonso Soriano (.229), Milton Bradley (.227) and Geovany Soto (.223) are stuck in season-long slumps. Kosuke Fukudome is in a 3-for-36 skid after another quick start, but apparently this rut is nothing like last year’s freefall.
“It is definitely different from last year,” he said through an interpreter.
Manager Lou Piniella would like him to shorten his swing. He also had another request.
“Why don’t we focus on the positive thing, which is our pitching has been good?” Piniella said before Sunday’s 3-2 win over Minnesota. “Why don’t we talk about pitching? Why don’t we talk about some of the good defensive plays that we make and the fact that these kids are playing hard and they’re trying? Why don’t we focus on those things?”
About a half hour after he made that request, general manager Jim Hendry announced hitting coach Gerald Perry was fired. So much for that warm, fuzzy, feel-good moment.
For all their struggles, the Cubs are just 2 1/2 games out of first place and the White Sox are only 4 1/2 off the AL Central lead.
rying to tell ourselves stay positive no matter how much negativity we hear because we’re still right there,” the Cubs’ Derrek Lee said.
Now they’re heading into what figures to be an emotionally charged series even if both teams are struggling. It usually is whether they’re both in first place, as they were a year ago, or not, and the White Sox’s A.J. Pierzynski often winds up in the middle of the drama.
Three years ago at U.S. Cellular Field, he barreled over Cubs catcher Michael Barrett and smacked the plate. Barrett punched him in the face, one big swing sparking a bench-clearing brawl, and there was more drama the next day.
Pierzynski had a conversation with Barrett during the seventh, a few innings after a heated exchange with Zambrano.
That happened when Pierzynski clapped his hands after hitting a home run in the fourth, and the pitcher yelled and gestured. As he crossed the plate, Pierzynski thumped his chest twice and pointed toward the sky, as Zambrano does after innings.
Teammates restrained Zambrano as he shouted at the White Sox dugout, and the White Sox lined the top step but stayed put. Zambrano later said he made a mistake acknowledging Pierzynski and that he was actually yelling at third-base coach Joey Cora.
d lift the White Sox over the Cubs 8-6. Fans showered the field with cups, plastic bottles and other items, causing about a five-minute delay.
“There’s just been so many things that’s happened,” Pierzynski said. “The fans get into it. In the five years I’ve been a part of it, there’s been so many crazy things that have happened, it’s just good times.”
But right now, it’s rough times for both teams. Will it last?
“In the end of the season both teams should be in the pennant race – both teams, no doubt,” Guillen said.
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AP Sports Writer Colin Fly in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
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