Orlando Cabrera Feels Neglected

Yesterday we found out about White Sox shortstop Orlando Cabrera's recent habit of calling the press box and arguing about errors he was charged with. The arguing worked, as both calls were overturned by official scorers, but Orlando's manager wasn't too fond of the way Orlando was handling things.

Ozzie Guillen stepped out of character and actually shared his thoughts and feelings with the media by expressing his concern about how Orlando's teammates and White Sox fans would react to the news he was so concerned about his statistics. Especially considering that the Sox are currently a first place team, and that it might make it seem like Orlando was more concerned with his next contract than the White Sox winning.

Well, Orlando did not appreciate Ozzie's concern.

"If it happens again, I will call again," Cabrera said. "I don't have to do it with other teams because they always had my back. They don't want to do it here, I can take care of my own business. If you have a problem with what I did, come to me and say something. Don't go to the media to send a message, because he didn't send any message."

"I never had anybody complain about that stuff. If there was a major-league player who tells me he's not selfish, he's lying. Everyone is selfish about numbers, because that's the only thing people cannot lie about. That's it. It's not a big deal. I don't know who's trying to make this a big deal. Maybe it's the media, maybe it's the manager. And nobody is complaining about that stuff. Nobody cares about that."

This could get interesting.

In recent weeks Orlando has said that Mike Scioscia was the smartest manager he's ever played for, which I wouldn't disagree with, nor would Ozzie Guillen as Ozzie even admitted as much in an interview with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan on Sunday Night Baseball. Now he's coming out and saying that the White Sox don't have his back while worrying about his stats so he can get a nice contract when he hits free agency this winter.

Something tells me that this isn't going to sit well with most White Sox fans.

As for his manager, Ozzie is keeping pretty calm about the whole thing.

"Like I said, be careful what you're doing, what you're saying, because when people find out, you have 25 guys to respond to questions," Guillen said. "I'm not mad about the case. I wish he would have handled that a little bit better. I'm the worst manager about [complaining to] scorers.

"... If Cabrera doesn't feel protected by that, I think it's wrong. I'm here for them, they're not here for me. I don't even remember what play it was. In the '80s, you didn't even care about it. Now, there are a lot of people with hurt feelings. It's not about feelings, it's about winning. [But] he has the right to do it."

I highly doubt that this will be the last we hear about this situation before Cabrera moves on after the season.