More Ozzie, off to the Dome and Peavy ... Sunday in a nutshell

NEW YORK – A dismal showing in Boston. An “embarrassing” three days in New York. And now the reward for that?

Three games in the house of horrors that is the Metrodome, where the Sox have lost four straight games this season and are 2-14 there in their last 16 in the Twin Cities.

No wonder pitcher John Danks laughed and had to take a few moments to answer which ballpark he hated more – the Dome or Wrigley Field.

“We play there more, so I guess I’ll say the Metrodome,” Danks replied.

Considering he once said of Wrigley Field, “We’ll all be bringing our nose plugs, try not to smell all the urine… that place is a (bleep)-hole,” the Sox must really be excited that this will be their last series in the Metrodome with the new Target Field set to open for 2010.

“I’m glad this is the last series there, but I know come next April we’ll all be wishing we were back indoors,” Danks said. “Hopefully we can win some games and send that place off right.”

Manager Ozzie Guillen would sure like to. In fact, Guillen said he would like to tear down one of the numbers for the countdown to the new ballpark the Twins have been doing all season long.

“Besides Wrigley Field, the Metrodome is not one of my favorite ballparks,” Guillen said. “Everything out there is very, very bad. I told [Twins manager Ron Gardenhire], when they take the numbers out for the date, I want to do it. They should call time out and I’ll walk over there and I’ll do it myself. And I told Gardy, ‘I will see you in the next park.’ We will kick his butt when they move to a new place.”

But they still have three in the old place. A place that both A.J. Pierzynski and Jermaine Dye have admitted that the Sox seem beaten in before the game even starts. Add Danks to that group.

“It’s one of those things where you’re almost waiting for something bad to happen,” Danks said. “That obviously isn’t the right mindset to have, but it seems like it happens every time we’re there. Whether it’s a turf hit, or just whatever it is, it’s kind of clich, but they have to deal with the same things we do when we play there. The difference is they obviously are used to it.”

Peavy update

The White Sox have finally ruled Jake Peavy out of making his debut at Wrigley Field against the Cubs.

The hope now is that the right-handed pitcher isn’t ruled out of pitching for the big-league team at some point this week.

Making his fourth rehab assignment start for Class AAA Charlotte on Saturday, Peavy was shut down after just 3 1/3 innings pitched because of tightness in the same throwing elbow that was stung by a comebacker last Monday.

The goal was to get him close to 100 pitches, but they had to settle for 68. So now where does that leave Peavy in all of this?

“I spoke to Peavy and he said he had some discomfort and had to leave the game and didn’t feel good,” pitching coach Don Cooper said.

Peavy will now rejoin the team on this trip, where he will be looked at by head trainer Herm Schneider and they will examine the elbow area to make sure it was nothing more than what was to be expected in the wake of a comebacker off that area of the arm.

“I think we have to see how he’s doing physically before we think about anything after that,” Cooper said. “It turns out we were kind of right by sending him down to get another [rehab start], weren’t we? And we are going to be right again on the next call, wherever that be, whether it’s here or somewhere else. Whatever schedule we set, we’ll find out what we need to do once we find out what we are dealing with.”

Even if Peavy checks out fine and can pitch for the Sox this week, it won’t be against the Cubs. Not that manager Ozzie Guillen didn’t at least try winning that argument.

“No, he’s not going to pitch against the Cubs,” Guillen said. “It will be whoever is next, but it’s not going to be against the Cubs. I tried to convince myself, tried to convince [general manager] Kenny [Williams] and convince Coop, but that’s a lot of risk out there because he’s got to hit, he’s got to run, he has to do a lot of things, and I don’t see why we have to take the risk.”

And finally, more from the Oz

One day after his tirade, here was a calmer Guillen.

“I always calm down,” Guillen said. “I have to say what I have to say. I mean it. If anybody don’t like it, [bleep] it. They don’t like it, my office is open.”

Asked if anyone did, Guillen replied, “They don’t have no balls to do it. They don’t. Because if I say that, it’s for a reason. I’m not crazy, I’m not stupid. If I say this, it’s for a reason. What’s the reason? Look at the record.”

And the rest of Ozzie on Sunday:

“We better [play better] because if they want to win, they are the ones who have to perform. If they want to feel proud of themselves, they better step it up. I’m not saying I don’t believe in them, I don’t say we cannot win with this ballclub. I just say the way we are playing, if they think they are playing good, they just have to get a tape and watch the way they are playing. That’s what they have to do because I watch it, and I don’t think it’s good.

If we think we are going to win the way we are playing, we don’t. Do I think we have the material and the people to do it? Yes, of course we do. Because I’m not going to put myself in the situation that if I know I don’t have enough talent to win, that’s a different thing. I know we have talent, and I know we did it before and I know what we can do. That’s the only reason I say that because I know.

“When I say we are stealing money, there are only two people not stealing money from the White Sox right now Hermie Schneider and Brian Ball, our trainers. Because we’ve got more guys inside that room than anybody suspect. And we’re not performing.

“They know me. I’m always going to say the way it is. Some people have some guts, some people don’t, some people say maybe it’s Ozzie being Ozzie, my honesty takes me to a lot of problems, but nobody is going to change me. And I will keep my head up because I know I was telling the truth. I never lied. The only time I lie is when I tell my wife I love her every day. That’s bull [bleep]. But everything else, I’m straight up.

A lot of guys out there play for me a lot of years, and they know I love it. They know I’m not a hypocrit and they know that I love them from the bottom of my heart, and I will fight for them every minute. But I have a job to do, and our job is not getting done. You want to make me happy, win some games.”