South Side Sox, a Chicago White Sox community

The Chicago White Sox have un-retired uniform No. 11, the number worn by Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio, for the 2010 season, during which it will be worn by Omar Vizquel, the team’s newly acquired 11-time Gold Glove infielder. Vizquel, a native of Venezuela, will don the number as a tribute to Aparicio, who is the first and only Venezuelan to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. "If there is one player who I would like to see wear my uniform number with the White Sox, it is Omar Vizquel," said Aparicio. "I have known Omar for a long time. Along with being an outstanding player, he is a good and decent man." "I feel privileged to have the opportunity to wear the same uniform number with the White Sox as the great Luis Aparicio," said Vizquel. "It is a great honor for me."

Ozzie Guillen made the change for Wednesday's [rainout] against the Tigers, putting Jayson Nix in for Ramirez at shortstop. During his pregame chat with the media, the White Sox manager made it clear this was not a one-game respite for the Cuban Missile. "It's hard for me to say, but it's not a rest," said Guillen of the change from Ramirez to Nix. "I always tell my players, 'Give yourself a chance. Get good at-bats.' But when you see one at-bat after another, after another, after another, and no results, no adjustments ... "I'm not going to say I'm punishing him. But we are letting people know, just not him. We have to play as a team. We've got to see people on the field to help us." ...

No need for a second take. That really is Gordon Beckham's name penciled in at second base for the White Sox' exhibition game today against Australia's World Baseball Classic team. Does that mean we can add a new name to the position battle with the camp's biggest logjam? Not so fast, says manager Ozzie Guillen, who insists his prized prospect remains a shortstop. The highly touted first-round pick (eighth overall) from last June's draft belted his second home run of spring training Thursday in a 5-4 split-squad loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Glendale, Ariz. Afterward, bench coach Joey Cora revealed that Beckham will be making some cameos around the infield.

The two best baseball players ever from Colombia, Edgar Renteria and Orlando Cabrera, are engaged in a bitter feud and trading verbal attacks. In retrospect, it seems obvious that the two stars should never have done business together. "Really, there has never been a relationship with Orlando," says Rentería, an 11-year major league veteran. "We've never been friends." But last year Team Rentería, a family business that runs the four-team Colombian winter league and a youth baseball academy in Barranquilla, was looking for investors. Edinson Rentería, Edgar's older brother and the league's president, offered to sell the Cartagena franchise to Cabrera, who'd already opened a competing academy in his hometown. Cabrera put in $25,000 to buy the Indios but sold them back to the Renterías at the end of the season, in January, when, he says, his interest waned. Despite many disagreements with Edinson over such issues as TV-rights fees and ticket sales, Cabrera believed the separation was amicable. In fact, it was not. "He wanted to buy one team so he could wreck everything that's been done with the league," Edgar says. "I think he did it out of malice. You should ask him what he has against the Renterías. For several years, people have told me that he's jealous of me. People have always known me more in Colombia than him, and I think that bothers him."