You’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to match Ozzie Guillen for incindiary remarks. Yesterday at least, it would seem as though the Cubs’ Dusty Baker slept late. From the Chicago Sun-Times’ Mike Kiley , Mr. Gigantic Wristbands speaks in calm tones about this weekend’s series against the White Sox.

“I think they dislike us more than we dislike them,” Baker said. “That’s what it sounds like. I don’t dislike anyone. I don’t like to lose to them, but that has nothing to do with disliking them.”

Baker was informed that Sox manager Ozzie Guillen had said earlier Wednesday that he wasn’t excited by Sunday’s matchup between Mark Prior and Jon Garland because Garland is the better pitcher right now and hasn’t been on the disabled list as much as Prior in recent years.

“Ozzie can say whatever he wants to say, and it’s OK,” Baker said. “I don’t have that right, that privilege. I’m not a homeboy yet. Ozzie’s a homeboy. Ozzie played [in Chicago].”

Baker has made a concerted effort to tone down his responses this season after finding himself the center of conflict for some statements in his first two years as Cubs manager. He believes his remarks get more scrutiny than Guillen’s.

“When I do [make comments], I get a lot more … whatever you want to call it,” Baker said.

Told that Guillen had gotten his share of criticism for what some have considered intemperate remarks, Baker replied, “Maybe I didn’t read it that way.”

There is a strong belief among some that Chicago is a Cubs town more than a Sox town. True or false, Baker was asked.

“If attendance is the indicator, then that’s possibly true,” Baker said cautiously.

But he thought the subject was too rabble-rousing to delve into.

“To me that’s petty stuff that I don’t have time to worry about,” Baker said. “It adds to the fire.”