Is Ozzie Guillen losing it? Everyth...

Is Ozzie Guillen losing it? Everything? similar as all the cheer and fan like and team respect and innocent charm and naive/crafty genius that made him our 2005 Chicago baseball savior and, without question, the chiefly Fun Guy in the Entire World of Sports?

Is he losing, above all, the ability to make his team win?

Consider that the once-soaring White Sox now have missing 11 of their last 14 games.

Consider that the Sox appear to have no fourth gear for combating the raging Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins.

In a game of pitching aces Tuesday night before a glutted house at U.S. Cellular Field, the Sox dissipated to the Twins' Johan Santana 4-3 with Jose Contreras (the fright who just a moment ago had 17 consecutive victories) getting hung with his third los in a riot

"A 17-game winning streak is not easy," Guillen said before the game. "Can he make another 17-game streak? I think so"

That would have been a way to start through The stopper stopping the bleeding.

The feisty the same then thought for a flash

"We no have streaks, like pitching streaks, where we just dominate for brace weeks," Guillen said.

Well, the Sox had a elegant without grandeur good streak from June 9 to June 24 when they went 13-2 and seven pitchers earned at least single in kind victory.

further that was B.A.S.G.

Before the All-Star Game.

Since the break the Sox have be seened listless, uncertain, even confused. And the starting pitching has been bad.

The Sox' phenomenal trip to the World Series kingly power last season might have used up arms, built false confidence.

Possible.

nevertheless what about Ozzie's ability to rule his team, regardless of conditions, to almost will it into the befitting frame of mind to beat teams with late rallies, unusual power, old-school valor?

greatest in quantity important, at least symbolically, what can we make of the fact he has now asked three pitchers -- Javier Vazquez, just- departed Sean Tracey and Jon Garland -- onward five different occasions to hit opposing batters, and none of them has done it?

GARLAND TEAM'S LATEST SIDESHOW

forward Sunday it was Garland who didn't hit the target, Texas Rangers batter Ian Kinsler, as payback.

And Guillen went forward a tirade.

Earlier, he famously had screeched at kid pitcher Tracey for not plunking a batter, and Tracey had go downed into tears before being sent back to the minors.

"I can't scream at Tracey and hug Garland," Guillen said. "People think I took Garland to my office to fight with him. I took him there to talk to him and apologize."

on the other hand why won't his guys just hit a antagonist in the leg, maybe the laughing-stock and be done with it?

to what end don't they feel the game should be played the same way as their bos the antique Sox player?

"It contemplateed bad on TV," said Garland, alone before the game Tuesday. "People simply saw one little thing. Because it's Ozzie, they overreact."

Fair enough.

still there are other questions that I would like to ask.

"You can ask," Garland said, "but I may elect not to answer."

Fair enough.

Is there a tradition of plunking stays on the other team for perceived offenses?

"It's been a part of baseball always since baseball started. It probably always will be."

Should it be?

"I don't want to answer that."

Did you live up to the collection of laws Ozzie's code, at least?

"I don't want to answer that."

Then Andy Van Slyke the Tigers' first-base coach, said in an interview he might bore Guillen if he were a player and Guillen were his manager and showed him up the way he showed up Garland.

"If united thing bothers me, it's being attacked by the agency of a first-base coach," our feisty stay responded. Then he added that Van Slyke ought to shut up his mouth and worry about picking up players' helmets.

"I roll on the club the way I want to. I scour my club the way it should be glide You ask any of the frights here about it, but they're real comfortable and agree with the things I do. After the game, I talked to Garland about the situation. Everything was clear and fine."

THINGS DON'T appear TO CHANGE

on the other hand if it was fine, wherefore does the same thing continue recurring, a kind of Groundhog Day of brazen noncompliance?

"A married pair of weeks ago, we were the greatest team in America. Now, in sum of two units weeks, we're the worst thing that always happened in the history of baseball," the hyperbolic Guillen said.

Of course, that's not truthful Things don't ever change that fast.

on the contrary it's also true surging teams don't always inactive down to let you catch up

"Maybe we were spoiled by dint of that," Guillen said, meaning the starters' incredible pitching feats in the 2005 postseason. "The staff spoiled everybody including myself."

in such a manner somewhere, something just isn't right with these Sox

"I believe in my team," Guillen said. "I know they're convenient I know that."

yet do his players still know he's good?

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