Guillen Does Not Share Chicago’s Love of Wrigley

They might be fighting words in this town, but Ozzie Guillen said them anyway.

“I hate Wrigley Field,” he said.

The Chicago Cubs, occupants of Wrigley Field, have not appeared in the World Series since 1945. The White Sox are in the World Series this year, but their manager says this will remain a Cub town even if the Sox win.

“We’d have to win seven World Series in a row,” Guillen said.

The Cubs so successfully sold the Wrigley Field experience during a string of marginal seasons that they cash in whether they win or lose, according to White Sox vice chairman Eddie Einhorn.

“They advertised everything but baseball,” Einhorn said. “It’s the neighborhood, the Friendly Confines. They had their rise without ever winning. Hats off to them.”

Said Guillen: “You go to Chicago and you don’t go to Wrigley Field? That’s like going to New York and not going to the Statue of Liberty.”

Guillen prefers the modern but antiseptic U.S. Cellular Field for its creature comforts. No matter how loud the daily sellout crowd, Wrigley Field opened in 1914, and the cramped clubhouses are among the outdated facilities there.

“I love it when the game starts,” Guillen said, “but before the game and after the game, it’s the worst field in baseball. Everybody around Chicago feels the same way. They don’t have the guts to say that. Go ask the players. They have to go to their batting cages and hit there with 20,000 rats.”

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The Houston Astros were optimistic Roger Clemens would pitch again in the World Series, the day after his strained left hamstring forced him to leave Game 1 after two innings.

In the event he could not, however, left-hander Wandy Rodriguez or right-hander Ezequiel Astacio probably would start Game 5, or they could bring back Andy Pettitte on short rest.

Clemens on Sunday continued treatment on the hamstring, which has been sore since early September and caused him to miss a start in the final week of the season.

“By no stretch of the imagination am I counting him out now,” Astro Manager Phil Garner said. “We’ll go day to day with it to see how it is.”

The Astros could push Clemens into later in the series, though Roy Oswalt is scheduled to pitch Game 3 and, if the series goes that far, Game 7. And Pettitte, on five days’ rest, would pitch Game 6.

Meantime, pitching coach Jim Hickey said he would not hesitate to pitch Rodriguez or Astacio in relief and deal with Game 5 when it arrived.

“We’re going under the assumption that he’s going to be able to pitch,” Hickey said of Clemens. “And if that changes, we’ll make the adjustment when the time comes.”

That Clemens pitched in pain for much of September has some teammates convinced he will heal quickly enough to pitch again.

“I wouldn’t count Rocket out,” Jeff Bagwell said. “This is the reason why he came here, is to get us to this spot, and I’m sure ... he wants to make a good showing of it. And I think you’re going to see him back on the mound.”

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Robin Ventura said he had declined Jim Tracy’s overtures to join the coaching staff of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“Right now, I don’t really want to do anything like that,” Ventura said. “It was nice of him to see if I were interested.”

It has been three weeks since the Dodgers let Tracy and his coaches go, two weeks since the Pirates hired him. So far, Tracy has hired two of his former Dodger coaches, Jim Colborn and Jim Lett.

Ventura, 38, retired after playing for Tracy and the Dodgers in 2003 and ’04. He and Bo Jackson, both former All-Stars for the White Sox, participated in the first-pitch ceremony Sunday.