Jose Guillen won't back down, is glad he said what he said, and isn't that a nice change?

Here's the thing you have to like about Jose Guillen: he's real.

It's easy for famous people, I think especially athletes, to create certain images that they feel like they have to live up to. Fake images, sometimes it's the image they want to be, sometimes it's the image they think will cause them the least trouble, or make them the most money.

You know the whole "it's not about the money" line? Guillen will tell you he signed with the Royals because they had the best offer.

His mother lives in New York and was on his case to sign with the Mets.

"Mom," he remembers telling her, "I cannot say no to this offer."

He is honest, whether it makes him look good or not.

If he thinks the fans are wrong for booing him, he'll say it, as he did in a story we did about a month ago. If he thinks he showed up to spring training too fat, he'll say it.

And if he thinks some of his teammates are "(expletive) babies" who need to learn how to win, yeah, he'll say that too.

And he won't back down from it.

"I'm just trying to speak the truth," he told me yesterday in the clubhouse. "The truth is the truth. I'm not backing off what I said, that's it."

You can make the argument that Guillen wasn't the right guy to say something. I disagree, but can certainly see where that argument comes from.

Either way, you have to understand that this is absolutely in Guillen's DNA --- to not only blow up, but to then stand by what he said in the heat of the moment.

With months to cool down after the (in)famous blowup in Anaheim with Mike Scioscia, Guillen then called Scioscia "a piece of garbage," said he could "go to hell," and that everytime he played the Angels with Scioscia as manager, it would be personal.

There was also an incident in Cincinnati, where he was pulled from the lineup at the last second so the Reds could showcase a younger outfielder, and Guillen let loose a tirade that ended with a hole in the wall.

Years later, I asked him about it in spring training.

"I had every reason in the world to be the maddest I can be," he said. "I should have blown up the (expletive) clubhouse. I understand this is not my team, but come on. I was hitting .340 that year in Cincinnati."

He finished at .337, but you get his point. Maybe you take all this as sour grapes, or an inability to let things go. Whatever, I can see that.

But to me, it's refreshing to deal with a guy who speaks his mind like that, doesn't much care about the consequence, and won't cry "I was misquoted" or "it was takent out of context" when people start reacting.

A couple of Guillen's teammates have given him that "out" in interviews since, of mentioning that sometimes when you're angry and frustrated (something they all were during that 12-game losing streak) you say things you later regret.

But not Guillen. If the man says it, angry or calm, chances are he means it.

From what I can tell, most Royals fans like Guillen's style as well. Or at least they do for now.

By the time I woke up the morning after Guillen's "babies" rant, I got text messages from two good friends who are big Royals fans saying Guillen was their new favorite player. Probably a couple dozen e-mails said the same thing, and I know there were a few threads on Royals Corner with similar sentiments.

Guillen's noticed it, too. I've never heard him say this, but I think he was a little apprehensive about what the next three years would be like in Kansas City and with the Royals.

Assuming he does finish that contract here, it would be the longest he's ever played for one team. He's talked a lot about how he's excited to finally "have a home," one place he knows he'll be, but I think there has definitely been a feeling out process here, and on both sides.

I know it didn't help when Guillen and his wife were minutes from handing over a deposit check for a house near the Plaza when his driver's car (which contained Guillen's wife's purse) was stolen. That's probably not the best welcome to KC moment you could think of.

But they found another house, and are in the process of settling in, both literally and figuratively.

I thought it was telling when Guillen told me this, too:

"The fans, my first at bat (Friday, after the rant), I never heard the fans here clap for me that loud," Guillen said. "It's nice that they have my back, as well as my teammates. I know sometimes in baseball you've got to say what you've got to say, and some people can take it the wrong way.

"I never had any probelm telling the truth to people. I've never been afraid of that, but hopefully I don't have to do that again for a long time."