White Sox’s Holiday Tale Has Happy Ending

Paul Konerko is the ghost of Christmas present. It looked as if Mr. Soxtober could be gone for good, but on the last day of November he came back to the place where he belongs. White Sox win again.

Jim Thome is the ghost of Christmas future. The newest of the Sox failed to make spiritual contact until the last day of November, when he reached Konerko to implore him not to leave. Mr. Soxtober cut him off and said: “Too late. Save your breath. I’m already coming back.”

Frank Thomas is the ghost of Christmas past. The team’s resident legend was one of the first calls Sox general manager Ken Williams made with the news Konerko was going to stay, which means the man who was Mr. White Sox probably needs to go. There is no more room at the inn.

That’s the story of this holiday season. Somebody did need to get Scrooged, and a couple of guys did -- Thomas being one, Aaron Rowand another. But considering how it could have turned out, this tale definitely does have a happy ending.

Chicago is where Paul Henry Konerko will be playing first base again in 2006. If you want to know why, he was able to sum it up for you Wednesday in one sentence:

“It’s as simple as where your heart is.”

Such a sweet sentiment this is, so refreshing in a day when men in Konerko’s position -- and we don’t mean first base -- seek greener pastures and leave the people who have shown them the most love.

Yet it wasn’t simple at all for Konerko, who was merely being kind in saying so. If you want to know how close he did come to bailing on the Sox, he was able to sum that up in one sentence as well:

“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe it.”

The Los Angels almost had him. Konerko had geographical and psychological reasons to like the Angels, not to mention 60 million bankable ones.

Life could be good with a halo on his hat.

But it was when Thome joined the club that Konerko decided to rejoin.

“That was the best recruiting move the White Sox could make,” he said.

In other words, the Sox were able to keep Konerko by showing how they could get by without him at first base. What impressed him most was the Sox were out wheeling and dealing as if they hadn’t won a thing.

Agents operate in a “show me the money” world, and Konerko’s was under instructions to get him the best possible deal. But Craig Landis also understood a softer side to Konerko’s nature, the one that was concerned that if he left Chicago, as the agent put it, “Kids there would be disappointed.”

Landis’ father played for the Sox. Fans on the South Side were sorry to see Jim Landis leave via trade in 1965, and it was 40 years ago Thursday the great center fielder was traded for a second time that year.

The next center fielder to help the Sox win a pennant, Rowand, had to be sacrificed. to bring Thome into the fold. Konerko consoled Rowand a week ago, saying, “I might be following you out the door, so don’t feel too bad.”

It was painful for Williams to call Rowand and inform him of the trade, though not quite as painful as a kidney stone that has the GM in agony or as is the thought of telling Thomas that the next time anybody sees him in a Sox cap, it might have to be on a Hall of Fame bronze bust.

Konerko was sympathetic up to a point, saying a man of Thomas’ stature should be able to “go out on his own terms.”

Yet it is Konerko who dictated the terms. When he stood with Rowand and Thomas at the Oct. 28 civic rally, Konerko said the only way doubters would believe in the Sox was for them to win the World Series again. But Konerko was the one Williams couldn’t count on to return, so to get Thome he had to part with Rowand and, like a domino falling, Thomas too.

It could have been worse.

Konerko could have left. Imagine watching a victory parade on TV through Anaheim’s streets with Paulie atop a float. Or imagine him watching a second Sox parade go by without him -- the very guy who told the Chicago crowd: “Maybe we’ll have to do this again next year!”

Well, maybe now they will.

You can’t win ‘em all, even when you win a World Series, but the Sox do seem to be giving it a pretty good try.