81

Back in the saddle after a long Fourth of July weekend and all I want to talk about is Paul Konerko not making the All-Star team. The White Sox captain not only deserves to be on the team, it’s not even close. Paulie is hitting .324, he’s smacked 22 home runs, and he’s driven in 64 runs – top five in everyone of the Triple Crown categories.

In fact, going into yesterday’s action – the most recent stats available on Baseball-Reference.com – there were only two players in the American League who were batting over .300, had over 20 homers, and exceeded 50 RBI: Jose Bautista, who set the record for most votes received in the All-Star balloting; and Konerko.

Yes, I know that Paulie is on the ballot for the online voting of the last player to be added to the roster and the Sox are campaigning hard for him with their “Paul Star” promotion. But it shouldn’t have come to that. The guy is having an MVP kind of season – though Bautista’s admittedly is better – not a marginal All-Star kind of season. And with all due respect to Carlos Quentin, if the Sox get only one player on the team, it should be Paul Konerko.

After meat loafing the Cubs and splitting so far with the Royals, the Sox are still in third place, but just 3.5 games behind Cleveland in the A.L. Central race. The Magic Number is down to 81, with the rubber game against KC and then a series with the Twins before the break. Go Sox! Go Paulie!