CHICAGO -- If fans came to the opening night of SoxFest on Friday expecting the first Town Hall meeting with general manager Ken Williams and manager Ozzie Guillen to resemble a segment from the Jerry Springer Show, they probably were disappointed by the overall lack of venomous exchanges.

The only real frustration emanating from the session at the Palmer House Hilton -- which lasted more than an hour, even though it originally was slotted for 30 minutes -- centered on an informal survey that White Sox radio play-by-play man Ed Farmer took of the close to 250 people in attendance at the outset.

Talking about the big free-agent fish that wriggled off the hook, Farmer asked the fans how many would have paid the $90 million spent by the Angels for Torii Hunter.

Not one fan raised a hand. Farmer then posed the same basic question, only this time he asked how many fans would have offered Aaron Rowand the $60 million given to him by the Giants. A significant number of fans quickly raised their hands.

Apparently, Farmer temporarily misjudged the ongoing popularity of the South Side's favorite son. But one angry fan made it clear as to why he thought Rowand was worth the money.

"You don't have a center fielder," the fan yelled from his seat in the Red Lacquer Room, not completely satisfied with the options of Jerry Owens and Nick Swisher. "I want a center fielder."

Farmer verbally jousted with this particular fan, asking him if he really wanted to pay Rowand as much money as a more proven player over the past decade, such as first baseman Paul Konerko. A few other fans chimed in, with one saying that the team had some explaining to do in regard to last year's dismal 72-90 finish.

All the while, Williams stayed quiet, taking in the debate from the front table. When the dais was yielded to him, he explained a continued plan of taking risks on high-ceiling sorts of players as far as building the White Sox was concerned, as opposed to taking the safe route. It's the high-ceiling players, after all, who can produce greatness and possibly championships if everything falls into place.

"If you fail, like we did last year, that approach will open you up for buzzards to circle," said Williams during a 10-minute talk with White Sox beat writers after the Town Hall meeting. "I get it, and I accept it.

"As I tried to explain to the fans, and I probably didn't do a great job of it, we are going to take chances. The safe bet will look good and cover [you]. I know what those are. I would rather run the risk of high-ceiling guys, who could end up being all we envisioned."

Friday's question-and-answer session touched on topics ranging from the situation at second base to the team's potential interest in free-agent pitcher Bartolo Colon to which player currently is on third base.

For the record, Guillen foresees a great Spring Training battle at second between Danny Richar, Juan Uribe, Alexei Ramirez and Pablo Ozuna. He thought that Colon threw fine when watching him recently, but the team's interest seems to have faded, and if he had to pick a winner right now, Josh Fields would be his starting third baseman.

"We have to wait to make sure Joe Crede is going to be healthy," Guillen said.

As is always the case when emotions run a little high at these SoxFest meetings, there was plenty of levity involved. When one fan praised Williams for his work and said that both he and Guillen should get a lifetime pass for winning the 2005 World Series, Williams thanked the young man and added, "I wish your name was Jerry Reinsdorf."

When Farmer took a second stab at explaining how Hunter went from favoring the White Sox to becoming part of the Angels, Williams piped up and pointedly added, "I don't care about Torii Hunter."

"He's a great guy, but he's not on my team," Williams said. "I would prefer to focus on what we have, not what we don't. I would prefer to focus on who's here, instead of who's not here."

Town Hall meetings are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday afternoon, when the crowds might be a bit more demanding. All of Friday's activities were open solely to fans who purchased a SoxFest hotel package.

Center field seemed to be the hot-button issue on Day 1, whether it was Hunter or Rowand at the eye of the storm. But Guillen put the entire dispute in perfect context, defining last year's troubles as a team-wide problem that couldn't simply be corrected by adding a big-ticket outfielder.

Of course, Guillen provided this explanation after offering his own clever take on the matter.

"You are going to have a center fielder. I don't think we can play without a center fielder," said Guillen with a wry smile aimed toward the miffed fan. "It just might not be the one you want."