konerko75
There are a number of reasons why Paul Konerko might want to win the American League's "Final Vote," a competition he's currently leading.
Among them: The Chicago White Sox first baseman's numbers (21 homers, 62 RBIs and a .959 OPS) are more than All-Star worthy, it'd be the fifth All-Star appearance of his career and the game will be held near his home in Arizona. He'd also join teammate Carlos Quentin on the squad; both have helped the White Sox offense afloat during early incompetence from Adam Dunn and Alex Rios.
But none of that apparently matters to the quiet Konerko. He said he'd rather be elected to the AL's final spot because the ever-active White Sox PR department is putting in a lot of overtime to create their "Paul Star" campaign.
And he'd hate for all that work to go to waste.
From ESPN Chicago: {YSP:MORE}
"It's a nice thing to go to the All-Star Game, but it's not the end of the world if you don't go," Konerko said. "So it's not like I'm sitting here trying to promote myself. But our team does a good job. I hope we win just because of the fact there are so many people behind the scenes ... like yesterday was July 4, they had a ton of people come in that had the day off, just because of this, to work on the campaign. So from my standpoint, I hope we win, because I kind of feel bad to make people do stuff for nothing."
Though it is the job of the White Sox PR staff to publicize their might-be All-Star, it's nice to see Konerko recognize that all of this support doesn't just appear out of thin air.
