The fire in Ozzie Guillen’s belly is just fine.

Evident by the fact that the White Sox manager even took time to stop at a T-shirt vendor’s stand outside of Wrigley Field and buy a shirt depicting Guillen riding a lawnmower that read, “Ozzie mows Wrigley Field.’’

It wasn’t even a freebie, he had to dish out a $20.

But as far as the idea that both he and Cubs skipper Lou Piniella need more fire in 2009, Guillen had his own explanation for that.

“Well I think Lou is getting old and I’m getting poor. I’m broke,’’ Guillen said. “Every year I donate too much money to Major League Baseball.

“I don’t think we need it. One thing I follow in baseball is Lou’s press conference. I never miss them, I never do. I think they’re fun. And he treats you guys real good. He talks to you guys when he wants to talk to you guys. I say what I have to say the day we played poorly, I say that because of the way we were playing. Right now, I don’t think we have to do it. When we have to do it, we’re going out and doing it. Sometimes, it’s like when your parents day in and day out all over you, and then all of a sudden the kids just start making fun of you and don’t listen to you. You have to pick your spots how and when to say stuff, and how. I think right now we don’t need to. Right now we know that both teams aren’t playing the way they should be playing. I’ll wait for a little while because I still believe that these guys can do it, and I don’t think it’s necessary right now to say stuff you don’t have to.’’

As far as if Guillen feels his tirades work with his players, well …

“I don’t give a [bleep] if they do,’’ Guillen said. “That’s my job. If they do it, they do it. If there’s one thing about the players I have, they respect me, and I respect them. The love is mutual. I don’t get paid to make friends, I get paid to manage a ballclub, and I will do the best I can to have the best of the two. I try to be the best friend I can be off the field, and on the field they are my players and I am the boss. I try to do the best I can to get the best out of them.

“I’ve got my style to do it, and it seems like they react real well. You ask any of my players, you ask J.D. [Jermaine Dye], or P.K. [Paul Konerko], Bobby [Jenks], I’ve got my way and they’ve heard it before. Every time I say something in the paper they know what’s going on and they know why I said it.’’

Other news from the day

Team captain Paul Konerko dismissed the Sammy Sosa steroid story as a non-story in his eyes, and gave an explanation why.

“First to me, it’s just not a story,’’ Konerko said. “Some guy writes an article, the sources aren’t public. One of two things needs to happen: Either whoever is going to report, these sources, put your name behind it and put your face out there and tell people who you are. Or someone admits to it and that’s what happened in the Alex Rodriguez thing.

“That’s the only two ways that this becomes a story. Obviously, you guys are standing here so it’s a story. But I just think that it’s just sad it has come to the fact that news now is on reports, unnamed sources and that kind of stuff. It gives it a bad name for you guys [the media].’’