You might not have noticed that, because Jose Guillen plays for a team that's locally more anonymous than the Cincinnati Cyclones, and baseball season ended here in June.

Too bad. What the Angels did is as rare as Sean Casey winning a 100-yard dash. The Angels booted one of their best hitters, right in the middle of a do-or-die chase for the playoffs.

After Thursday's games, the Angels and the Oakland Athletics are tied for first in the American League West.

The season comes down to a three-game series that begins tonight in Oakland. There will be no wild-card berth for either team.

Which prompts two questions:

• Don't the Angels know they have a division to win?

• What kind of jerk has Jose Guillen been out there?

More to the point: When was the last time any team, professional or quasi-pro-collegiate, put discipline over winning?

This isn't something you see every day. It isn't something you see any day. To quote an over-the-hill check-signer from Oakland, "Just win, baby."

When a star player gets in a jam, teams generally employ one of four defenses:

• They "wait for the legal system to run its course." Translation: "If we get this kid a good lawyer, we can get his case continued to 2035 or until his eligibility is used up, whichever comes first."

• They attack the accuser. See University of Colorado football.

• They go Father Flanagan, saying kicking the kid off the team would crush his ability to function as a civil human being. Even if he did smash his girlfriend's head into a mailbox. See: Lawrence Phillips, University of Nebraska.

• Or they merely hide it, ignore it and hope it goes away. See: Drug problem, Lawrence Taylor, New York Giants. Just sack, baby.

Locally, the last time I recall a team that put doing what was right ahead of doing what was expedient was Xavier basketball, in 1995. Coach Skip Prosser suspended starting guard Jeff Massey and another player for the Musketeers' NCAA Tournament opener, for a dust-up in a nightclub. Georgetown beat XU 68-63.

Guillen finished himself last Saturday. After Angels manager Mike Scioscia removed him in the eighth inning for a pinch runner, Guillen did the 2-Year-Old Tango: He threw his arms in the air and his helmet in Scioscia's direction. He Randy Johnson-ed his glove into the dugout wall.

He argued with Scioscia in the clubhouse later. The two had to be separated.

The Angels said see ya for the rest of the year.

A few things: Guillen is hitting .294 with 27 homers and 104 RBI. He's slumping lately, but he's having the best season of his life. Did we mention the Angels are in a pennant race?

Guillen was a rent-a-Red last year. He wondered why he wasn't playing more. Occasionally, he moped. It was a legitimate mope, given that Guillen had All-Star-caliber numbers by mid-July. He wasn't especially disruptive.

This year, he has been such a bad guy, even his teammates don't care if he comes back. When a player is hitting close to .300 with more than 100 runs driven in, he has to be a felony conviction shy of Charlie Manson for his own teammates to turn on him with a playoff spot on the line.

"Everyone supports it 100 percent," Angels pitcher Jarrod Washburn said of Guillen's eviction.

Guillen has played for six teams in five years. This isn't an accident. But because clubs worship at the altar of talent, the Angels took a chance on him. It blew up. The Angels responded by doing an amazing thing: They made a star player accountable. They did it at the most critical time of the season. Great for them. May they win it all.

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com

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