Konerko Is Applying His Trademark

Paul Konerko, removed from the Dodger pressure chamber, has been fulfilling all that hype with the Chicago White Sox.

Konerko batted .294, hit 24 homers and drove in 81 runs last year, and is off to a sizzling start to the new season with six homers, 22 runs batted in and a .330 average.

Traded initially by acting general manager Tom Lasorda to the Cincinnati Reds in the Jeff Shaw deal, Konerko has found a home at first base and emerged as the leading April run producer on a White Sox team that leads the American League Central.

Nevertheless, Konerko is the only Chicago regular not listed on the AL All-Star ballot. Even catcher Brook Fordyce, who broke a foot in late February and has yet to play, appears on the ballot.

“I guess people still don’t know where I play or what I’ve done,” Konerko said, kicking off a write-in campaign.

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The surprising White Sox have been rebuilt on young pitching and probably boast baseball’s best young outfield in Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Lee and Chris Singleton.

Manager Jerry Manuel acknowledges that the level of play went up after last week’s brawl with the Detroit Tigers, but that his team didn’t need the brawl to come together. The White Sox are confident to the point of being cocky, and Manuel said:

“This is such a long, long season that you have to be careful of putting yourself on a pedestal and then not knowing how to get back up [if knocked off]. We’re still living under the umbrella of potential, but as far as chemistry, I think it’s the best since I’ve been here.”

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Detroit Manager Phil Garner had an absurd reaction to the harsh penalties for the brawl with the White Sox.

“This is clearly a shot at Detroit,” Garner said. “It’s just a case of major league baseball out to get the Detroit Tigers. They couldn’t do it with the fine in the off-season [for hiring Garner without an interview process that included minorities], so they do it this way in the regular season. It’s obvious they don’t care if the Tigers are competitive or not.”

Garner was suspended for eight games and said: “I’m shocked. It’s completely out of whack. There’s no explanation he [Frank Robinson] can give for my suspension. What it says to me is that they’re accusing me of ordering my pitcher to throw at hitters. I take exception to that. Clearly, my policy has always been not to start anything. I have always told my pitchers to throw inside and to use purpose pitches, but don’t hit anybody.”

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Talking with John Kentera on XTRA (690) Friday night, San Diego Padre Manager Bruce Bochy came down hard on Tiger Coach Juan Samuel, who was suspended for 15 games for failing to serve as a peacemaker in the two fights between the Tigers and White Sox.

“I saw a lot of cheap shots,” Bochy said. “And Samuel might have gotten off easy. If he had been on my staff, I might have had to do my own disciplining. Samuel should have been out there breaking it up instead of throwing punches and kicking guys when they were down.”

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Go figure: Pat Rapp, released by the Boston Red Sox and signed by the Baltimore Orioles for $750,000 as a late-spring gamble, is 3-0 in four starts, and ace Mike Mussina is 1-2 in six starts. Of course, it has a lot to do with the fickle nature of run support. The Orioles have scored only 16 runs with Mussina on the mound and have scored 32 in Rapp’s four starts--at least six in each.

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His 7-1 record over his last 11 Angel starts should have been an indication there was life left in his 37-year-old arm, but Chuck Finley has removed any doubt with the Indians. Before Saturday’s seven-strikeout game against Texas, Finley struck out 10 or more in three consecutive starts, the first Cleveland pitcher to do that since Sam McDowell in 1970.