Captain, Captain, Oh my Captain

I saw this blurb in the Red Eye today, about how Paul Konerko is a better hitter on one knee than most players on two (Adam Dunn, cough cough). Since being hit directly in the knee cap about a week and a half ago, Konerko has been limited to DHing, which mean Dunn and Lillibridge (gulp) have had to play first, and in no way are they as near as good of firstbasemen as Paulie. Still, with one bad knee, Konerko will lead this team, as he always has. Konerko, the captain who doesn't wear the "C" on his jersey, leads the Sox who are only 4 games out with enough games against the Indians and Tiger (and them playing themselves currently) and give us hope for games in October. All of this has reminded me of Joesph's Drogos' 'So a Wounded Deer Leaps the Highest' blog post for MAKE. In the post Drogos writes about Ron Kittle, former Sox catcher, who during his career struggled with back problems (part of which led him to retire early). So, every at-bat, he would swing for the fences, and he sure could hit it far (onto the roof of Old Comiskey). Also, in the article, Drogos posts Tony Fitzpatrick's collage for the '05 Series Champs (which hangs in my room). In it Joe Crede is rounding third, and next to his right hand, Fitzpatrick writes: line drives find him like autumn bullets, bad back be damned… Joe is this city rounding third, going home.

I think there is a tradition of toughness that has defined Sox players from Kittle to Crede to Konerko. The Sox marketing guys hit it on a commercial (which is good, but their ones with A.J. are the best) that shows a tired runner in a desert. He is about to crawl when he sees Konerko, who is holding a portable DVD player. He presses play, and the video of Konerko getting hit in the jaw and then getting up and going to first, is seen (Konerko then homered in his next at-bat). The tired runner is inspired, and starts running again. Konerko  watches him run off, and turns around to see another tired runner. Konerko begins to repeat what he did and the screen cuts to the Sox slogan: All in. Konerko has always been like this, all in, even when injured. Hell, he played almost entire seasons with only one good thumb. He rarely misses games though. One of my earliest blog posts (which I wrote and days later the Times had a similar article) was about how Konerko may be the great offensive Sox player of all time, maybe the best. He could pass Frank Thomas in a number of offensive categories. With that, I argue that Konerko is a potential Hall of Famer. Thomas definitely is. Konerko won't have as many home runs as Thomas (he will be near a little over 500 most likely by the time he retires) but Konerko is a better fielder than Thomas ever was. And I think the way voters of Hall of Fame cast their ballots will change because of steroids, and many players will be left out, and Konerko is most likely squeaky clean as can be. I think Chicagoans my age are forced to believe the city is a Bears town and always will be. I disagree. I have no loyalty to the '85 Bears. Yes, they did what they did, but the Bears have sucked since. My fondest baseball memory is Paulie hitting his grandslam off Lidge in the Series, and I think it is the most iconic (even moreso than MJ hitting his game winning three, because they had titles already and it wasn't a century in the making). Hopefully Konerko will keep on hitting and Quentin and Ramirez will step up as well- the pitching has been fine. I want to see Konerko in October again, because even if he is injured, he will be all in, looking for the curveball.