Cowley: Gordon Beckham Talks About Oney And Twitter-Gate
By Joe Cowley--
Gordon Beckham wasn't going to get into the details of Oney Guillen and his "Twitter Gone Wild'' account like Matt Thornton did a few weeks ago, but the White Sox second baseman would like to see a drama-free 2011.
Easier said than done when it comes to the Sox.
Wrapping up his week long stay of working out with a few of his teammates at "Camp Cora'' down in Florida on Thursday, Beckham spoke about the latest controversy surrounding the Sox – specifically the fact that Oney Guillen – the middle son of manager Ozzie Guillen – may have ruffled a few feathers when he blasted former closer Bobby Jenks a few weeks ago on Twitter.
Several days after signing with the Boston Red Sox, Jenks had said in an MLB.com interview that he was "looking forward to playing for a manager who knows how to run a bullpen.''
That led to Oney Guillen putting him on blast on Twitter, bringing up the fact that Jenks "couldnt handle ur drinking [sic],'' and "u have had marital problems.'' There was also a tweet about Jenks crying in Guillen's office, which led to the talk of privacy issues between Guillen and his players.
"What happened here with Oney tweeting what he did, that's crossing a pretty big line in my personal opinion,'' Thornton told a local Chicago radio station. "That's something that's gotta be addressed quickly and taken care of and snuffed out real fast. Anytime you bring clubhouse stuff out in the open, I don't care what it is, it's that person's personal business and also the clubhouse's personal business. That's the first time all this stuff has really irritated me. It doesn't matter what's true and what's not true, I don't care about that. The fact that anything was said at all is ridiculous. It's definitely gotta be addressed and taken care of real quick around here.''
Beckham said he spoke to Joey Cora about the matter this week, while working with the bench coach in a voluntary "camp,'' and came away from the talk that everyone was now "on the same page.''
"Me and Joey talked a little bit about it,'' Beckham said. "The players and coaches are on the same page. We want to go out and compete. We don't want outside drama to fill the locker room. This year, we're going to try and totally concentrate on baseball.
"We don't want excuses that there was outside drama that strained the players. We want this to be on the players, on us. Everyone is on the same page. I think everyone has gotten over a lot of those issues. It's unfortunate that it happened, but it's about focusing on baseball now.''
