Bush honors White Sox as Series champs

WASHINGTON -- With much of the team absent and its colorful and quotable manager on a family vacation, the 2005 World Series Champion Chicago White Sox paid a visit Monday to the White House to be honored by President George W. Bush.\nBush, a former co-owner of the Texas Rangers, showered the team with praise, thanked Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf for helping him get into baseball ownership years ago and saluted manager Ozzie Guillen for his skill and becoming a U.S. citizen.\nHe also kidded some of Illinois' politicians, including Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate and a frequent critic of the Bush administration.\n"Were you White Sox fans at the beginning of the season?" he asked them with a smile.\nBush, with 17 current or former Sox players and the World Series trophy behind him, recalled to the packed East Room audience that Woodrow Wilson was president the last time the Sox won the Series in 1917.\n"After 88 years of waiting, the White Sox have earned the right to be called world champs," he said to loud applause that included the claps of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Illinois' senators Durbin and Barack Obama, and several congressmen.\nAnd even though Daley had days earlier questioned Guillen's decision not to join the Sox at the White House, Bush stressed that he had no problem with the Venezuelan native who once before had been to the White House as a Florida Marlins' Series-winning champion player.\n"I understand Ozzie is on vacation, which I fully understand," said Bush, who also congratulated Guillen for being named American League manager of the year and recently becoming a U.S. citizen.\nAfter the ceremony, Sox General Manager Kenny Williams, who had been singled out by the president for the way he put the team together, told reporters it was not a "big deal" that Guillen was not present.\n"I think he needed the vacation," Williams said. "It's been a long winter for him."\nWilliams denied reports that he himself had second thoughts about showing up because of differences with Bush over the war in Iraq. But he said he had been concerned his family would not be at the White House with him.\n"In terms of any political differences or anything, you got to check all that at the door -- no matter who's sitting in this (White House) chair," he said. "Sometimes, whoever is sitting in my chair, you are going to have differences of opinion, and that's what makes this country great."\nSox players presented Bush with a leather World Series jacket and a baseball jersey with "Bush" and the numeral one.\nFirst baseman Paul Konerko, who has re-signed with the Sox in a $60 million, five-year contract, said it was worth the trip from Phoenix just for a day to be at the White House.