“If this thing doesn’t work, I blame myself,” said Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “It’s my fault. I can say that right now and I can say that tomorrow and I can say it two weeks later. It’s my fault when something goes wrong on the field.”

Guillen said this in regards to the fact that his team sits 7.5 games back of the AL Central leading Detroit Tigers, and 11 games back of the wild card Boston Red Sox. At this time last year, the White Sox were leading a pack of playoff-hungry teams, and eventually squeezed their way into the playoffs, beating the Minnesota Twins 1-0 in a do-or-die 163rd game. Guillen was also at the helm of the 2005 club, who swept the Houston Astros in four to win their first World Series since 1917.

Don’t blame Guillen for the slide of the White Sox. Yes, he’s the manager, and yes, he is calling the shots, but he’s not the one swinging the bat, and he’s not the one wearing a glove. He’s not the one playing the games. For that, you need to look at players like Carlos Quentin, whose 2008 numbers will likely finish three-times better than his 2009 ones. Or you can look at Bartolo Colon, who can’t seem to find the strike zone, but when he does, the ball gets sent right back into the field. Or blame someone like the newly-acquired Alex Rios, who can’t seem to hit a beach ball lately, even if it was placed on a tee in front of him.

It’s not easy to win baseball games. Unlike other sports, baseball is designed around failure. It’s not so much about succeeding more often than the other guy, it’s about failing less often, and Ozzie Guillen, for everything that his mouth is, fails less often than the other guy. 2009 may not end with a playoff run for the White Sox, but you can bet that while Guillen is calling the shots from the bench, Chicago’s American League representative will always be in the hunt.