Cubs, White Sox, Paul for the Hall…Or At Least Phoenix

The Cubs are the darlings of Chicago but the White Sox are the better baseball team.

The Sox took two-of-three from the Cubs at Wrigley Field over the weekend and four-of-six this season, gracefully allowing the North Siders one victory on the South Side a few weeks ago and then also a triumph on Sunday, thus letting the Cubs avoid getting swept, spanked and called nasty names in front of their ivy-loving faithful.

Most seasons Chicago’s Crosstown Classic means very little outside of the event itself.   The Cubs are hopeless once again this year, but things might be a little different for the Sox who keep tapping lightly and passively on respectability’s door.

With Saturday’s victory, the White Sox reached the .500 mark for the first time since April only to slide back under water with Sunday’s loss.  Still, the Sox have what they usually have: pitching and Paul Konerko, and that’s been enough so far in 2011 to keep them in the hunt in the American League Central, a division that only a mother – or perhaps the Cleveland Indians – can love.

Konerko didn’t do too much against the Cubs this weekend but he’s been the anchor of the Medias Blancas all season – just as he has been for most of the last ten years – and is putting up All-Star numbers once more.  Through Sunday, Konerko was in the American League’s top five in average,(.317) homers (21), RBI (62) slugging, (.567) and OPS (0.954).   He also votes Libertarian and loves kittens – go Paulie!

OK, I fabricated those last two stats but Konerko does deserve a trip to Phoenix.   It’s understandable – I would even go so far as to say “acceptable” – that Adrian Gonzalez is getting the starting nod at first base for the AL as Gonzalez has even better numbers than Konerko.   And, of course, Gonzalez plays for the Boston Red Sox a team that, along with the New York Yankees, holds up baseball’s passion, integrity, box office, morals, TV ratings and overall goodness.  Just ask ESPN.

But Konerko should be an All-Star reserve if for no other reason than it will be nice to give President Obama another player to root for besides Carlos Quentin.  Quentin, Konerko’s teammate, is a reserve outfielder on the AL squad despite hitting just .253 along with an impressive 17 longballs and 49 RBI.   He’s good but his selection is perhaps a metaphor for the problem with the structure of baseball in regards to All-Star squads.  You can’t just pick the best players, you have to, usually, assemble something close to a team.

From any perspective, Konerko’s numbers blow away those of the other four guys he’s competing with for the final spot – Victor Martinez, Alex Gordon, Ben Zobrist and Adam Jones – so Konerko should get the vote.   Chicago, naturally, is good at stuffing the last minute ballot box having gotten Scott Podsednik in as the final vote All-Star in 2005 and A.J. Pierzynski in 2006 so hopefully Chicagoans, as well as all knowledgeable, kind and lighthearted baseball souls, will vote for Paulie early and often, just as I have.

An All-Star selection for Konerko would be the fifth of his career and would serve as another feather in the cap of a fine fella who is not charging toward Cooperstown but does see baseball’s hallowed halls somewhere in the distance if he can peer over the Ortiz’s and Jeters in front of him.

Konerko has a career batting average of .282 and 386 career home runs and, at the age of 35, is better than ever as this season and last year have been the best two campaigns of his career.  It’s not crazy to project that PK will retire with about 450 homers, if not more, and 1,500 RBI (he currently has 1,218.)

Konerko has never won a gold glove but he’s an above-average first baseman and, in 2005, he caught the final out when the White Sox clinched the division, the ALDS, the ALCS and the World Series.   He also made the catch – barehanded at that – on Mark Buehrle’s amazing play on Opening Day in 2010.  Yes, you remember, it was the coolest play of all time and is symbolic of Konerko’s career in that no one remembers that he made the catch to complete it.

Number 14 was also MVP of the 2005 ALCS and should have been MVP of the 2002 All-Star game as he hit two doubles and drove in two runs.   But, notoriously, that game ended in a 7-7 tie and Bud Selig  pulled the plug instead of doing something cool like having the game decided by a home run derby or, since it was in Milwaukee, a sausage race.  I guess they don’t give  MVPs for  tie games.

Regard Paul Konerko’s numbers and then remember that he’s won a World Series, has been scandal and problem-free and looks good in black.  It would be great to see him entering Cooperstown sometime around 2025 but that’s still a tall order.  For now, he deserves to be an All-Star.  He’s the best baseball player in Chicago and belongs on the same field as the best players in the world.