Sox manager: Dolls not meant to disrespect

CHICAGO, May 6 (UPI) -- Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said the team did not mean to offend by having inflatable female dolls in their clubhouse before a game in Toronto.

Guillen said the nude dolls, which the Association for Women in Sports Media slammed as offensive, were part of an effort to raise team morale and pull out of a recent losing streak, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Tuesday.

"In terms of taste I think people would find it tasteless," Sox spokesman Scott Reifert said. "They were just trying to get the bats going."

The dolls were surrounded by bats and bore signs on their chests saying "Let's Go White Sox" and "You've Got to Push."

"I'm sure it wasn't done to disrespect anyone," Guillen said. "Everyone in the clubhouse, 100 percent of the people in the clubhouse, they are 18 years old and that's a private thing. If the players do it in the dugout so everyone in the public could see it, or did it in the hotel lobby... we did it in the clubhouse. A lot of worse things happen in the clubhouse. I don't really know why people are making it a big deal. If people got their feelings hurt because of that... they don't really know much about baseball."