Out of the lineup with a hernia,Detroit OF Magglio Ordonez hasn’t been shy in his criticism of his former White Sox team, manager Ozzie Guillen in particular. Guillen, not the most reserved character on the planet, shows no signs of backing down writes the Chicago Tribune’s Mark Gonzales. (thanks to reader Mike for the link)

The brushfire between manager Ozzie Guillen and former White Sox player Magglio Ordonez turned into a full-scale inferno Thursday morning after Guillen took exception to his fellow Venezuelan calling him an “enemy.”

“He’s a piece of [bleep],” Guillen told Sox beat writers after learning of Ordonez’s contempt for Guillen and alleging his manager steered him away from the Sox and to Detroit.

“He’s a [bleep], that’s what he is,” Guillen continued (above). “He’s another Venezuelan [bleep]. [Bleep] him.

“He has an enemy. Now he has a big one. He knows I can [bleep] him a lot of different ways. He better shut the [bleep] up and play for the Detroit Tigers.”

In a five-minute interview a member of the Tigers staff halted, Ordonez expressed his frustration over his latest injury but was blunter in discussing the lack of a relationship he had with Guillen from the time they briefly played together with the Sox at the end of the 1997 season.

“We never clicked, even when we played together,” Ordonez said. “I don’t consider him my friend. I have nothing to say. I don’t want to see him or talk to him. He’s my enemy.

“If he comes to me and wants to apologize, I wouldn’t accept it.”

Ordonez said later he didn’t have a problem with Sox general manager Ken Williams and insisted it was Guillen who got involved with the Sox’s decision not to re-sign him.

“I don’t talk bad about people when people are hurt,” said Ordonez, who is on the disabled list and will be examined Monday in Philadelphia by a hernia specialist. “I’m very straightforward. There are a lot of people who try to push you down and do the opposite and not try to help you.”

Guillen became furious at any suggestion that he should apologize to Ordonez.

“Why do I have to apologize to him?” Guillen responded while sitting in his office chair and tapping his right foot frequently. “Who the [bleep] is Magglio Ordonez? Why ever talk about me? He doesn’t do [bleep] for me. But if he thinks I’m his enemy, he has a big enemy. He knows me.

“I just take it the way he wants to take it.”

Guillen said Ordonez started the verbal battle in February when Ordonez accused him of forcing him to play last season with a left knee injury that limited him to 52 games and convinced the Sox not to re-sign him after they had offered him a multiyear deal last April.

“Why would I get involved with [contract negotiations]?” Guillen asked. “I don’t get involved with that.”

“I think Magglio is playing with fire,” Guillen said. “I’m not afraid of him. I have nothing to apologize [for]. I have nothing to do with Magglio wearing the Detroit Tigers uniform.

“Every time when he played for me, he played good. But if he thinks I’m his enemy or I have something against him, it’s up to him.”

He never was my friend because I don’t know him. If I think what I say hurt him, I don’t give a [bleep]. I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to win games. I have a lot of friends. If Magglio doesn’t want to be my friend, I don’t have to drink with him.

“¦ A couple people asked me about it, and [I] was nice about his injury and [bleep]. I don’t give a [bleep] what he does for the rest of his life. He [bleeped] with the wrong guy.”