Oh snap. Steve Phillips has done gone and angered Sweet Lou. Not a good thing. From Paul Sullivan and the Trib:

Piniella was fuming over a remark Phillips made recently on a local radio show. Asked about Kosuke Fukudome’s rookie season, Phillips criticized Piniella’s handling of the Japanese outfielder.

“My view is Lou doesn’t have a great deal of patience for assimilation into culture, assimilation into the team,” Phillips said. “He is just not the most patient guy around, and he tends to verbalize his frustrations in an angry way. I think that may have affected Fukudome a little bit.”

I think I was one of two people in Chicago that didn’t lose patience with Fukudome. The other? Lou Piniella. He played Fukudome in 150 games. I also think it’s interesting how everyone just writes off Fukudome after one season. Also interesting? My mother-in-law wondering how parents could let their kids leave the house wearing Fukudome jerseys. (I explained it to her.)

“I don’t have much respect for Steve Phillips,” Piniella said. “Let him be around a little more and see what transpires before he makes assumptions. I’ve lost total respect for this guy. If he had something to say, let him say it to me.”

If this doesn’t call for a fake press conference I don’t know what does.