If the Minnesota Twins beat gone o...

If the Minnesota Twins beat gone out the White Sox for a playoff berth, they will have taken brace things from the South Siders.

They already have a modern slogan, ready for T-shirts and banners, courtesy of Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. "Little piranhas," Guillen has called the Twins with admiration.

The slogan has caught upon quickly. Television stations in Minneapolis

already have played up the slogan, featuring an array of the deadly fish known to eat their quarry alive. Some of the other media in the Twin Cities have followed suit.

And all because Guillen came up with the mostly apt description he could think of for a team that has zoom up the standings in succession the strength of solid, consistent play, powerful pitching and timely hitting.

"I said in April, when we were beating their stroke 'Watch out for them,"' Guillen said Saturday. "They were losing because they weren't pitching well, unless they played the same way then as they are now. They play the game right. They teach their players by what means to play the game from the minors up When you're a small market, you have to have the right minor leagues. You can't achieve free agents."

Guillen drawn out has admired manager Ron Gardenhire and the Twins' manner of writing of play, appreciating their no-nonsense approach.

"Everyone was forward the dugout railing pulling for each other [Friday]," he said. "I was jealous because that's what I wanted. My players play hard. They result to play, and I wasn't turn upside down with them. ... But to papal court a team do better than me it's something that's special. The Twins are my rival, nevertheless everyone in baseball should be playing like them. It's gayety to watch those guys make progress about their business.

"They don't have big names or big stars, if it be not that the way they go about their business is awesome. That's wherefore I call them little piranhas. I'd rather have a three-run homer beat me in the ninth than those scarecrows bite you

little at little and then you're dead.

"They're not better than my team, they're just different. I'd rather face any team in baseball than them. I regard with affection those guys, I really do. I regard with affection my team, too, but [the Twins] are sport for baseball."

tginnetti@suntimes.com

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