A.J. Pierzynski Isn't Always the Easiest Person to Get Along With

A shocker of a headline, I know, but apparently it's true. A.J. Pierzynski and White Sox hitting coach Greg Walker got into it shouting match in the dugout over the weekend, prompting Pierzynski to offer this extremely heartfelt apology:

"I'll apologize or whatever, but it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't like there were punches thrown or anybody was fighting or anything like that. Like I said, it's not the first time we got into a shouting match and I'm sure it won't be the last."

If saying "I'm sorry or whatever" doesn't show he's the bigger man, I don't know what does. Apparently the tiff started when Pierzynski returned to the dugout after grounding out against Manny Delcarmen. Pierzynski, whose pre-game routinely famously includes always going the extra mile to prepare playing cards instead of working on a game plan, was surprised when Delcarmen threw him a cutter:

"He told Walker, 'I didn't know Delcarmen throws cutters,' " said [Ozzie] Guillen, who said he was sitting a few feet from where the incident happened. "The information, that's the (20th) time we face Delcarmen since I've been managing (Pierzynski is 0-for-3 lifetime vs. Delcarmen).

"If he doesn't know what he has, don't make an excuse. That's a bad excuse. You put the coach on the spot to listen to that. The way we hit, if you come up to the hitting coach and say that, you put someone's job on the edge. ...

So that's that -- Chicago is one big (slightly dysfunctional) family.

(via Can't Stop the Bleeding)